France’s Minister of the Interior has condemned the violence that erupted in the Paris region after PSG’s win over Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League semifinal late Wednesday night.
Supporters took to the streets to celebrate the Paris team’s advancement to the final on May 30 in Budapest. However, the celebrations were overshadowed by a series of disturbances.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told French radio that 127 people were detained in the greater Paris region, 107 of them in the capital itself. Eleven people were injured, one of them seriously, he said. Another 23 police officers sustained minor injuries.
The newly elected Deputy Mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, participated in the festivities after watching the match with hundreds of people – many of them children – at his headquarters in Hôtel de Ville.
Elsewhere in central Paris, dozens of trash cans and a few cars were set on fire, and police fired tear gas to keep people from approaching PSG’s stadium, Parc des Princes.
“I condemn these transgressions, which unfortunately are becoming common on nights when Paris Saint-Germain wins,” Nuñez told the radio channel Europe 1.
Worse Last Time
The violence on Wednesday night was significantly less severe than the hours following PSG’s win in last season’s Champions League final against Inter Milan, when hundreds were detained. Two people were killed in France in related incidents.
Even though more than 30 people were injured in the latest violence, a mortar-type firework caused serious injuries to one person, Nuñez added.
The Interior Minister said that hundreds of people had tried to attack police and loot local businesses, but emphasized that an attempt to block the Paris ring road, périphérique, had been thwarted.
Exhibit Destroyed
Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand published a video showing the devastation after his outdoor exhibition at Place de la Concorde, where all displayed panels had been knocked over and many of the pictures vandalized.
More than 5,000 police officers were deployed in Paris ahead of last season’s final, which also took place in Munich, and PSG’s stadium Parc des Princes was converted into a fan zone.
However, some of last year’s clashes took place near the stadium.
Emmanuel Grégoire said he wanted this year’s final to be a big celebration as well, even though he understood the potential risks.
“We’ll work on that because, of course, I want to do it in a safe way—but I want a big fan zone for the final,” he told French radio.
The Interior Minister didn’t seem impressed by Grégoire’s idea, which he described as “one-sided,” and warned of the risk of further unrest on the night when PSG faces Arsenal in Budapest at the end of the month.
“No disturbances will be tolerated,” he said. “They will always be met with a very forceful response.”
Several videos of the riots are now circulating online: