French authorities confirmed that a person has died and two other people are in serious condition after overnight celebrations in the country following Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League final victory over Arsenal on Saturday.
The country’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said in a news conference on Sunday that 57 police officers were hurt and 219 people were injured as mob violence broke out in some places.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the death of a 24-year-old man, whose motorbike is believed to have crashed head-on into a row of concrete blocks on an exit ramp near Porte Maillot in Paris.
Another person, aged 17, is in a coma after being stabbed during a brawl in a western neighbourhood in Paris. Moreover, a second person is also in very serious condition after a car crashed into a terrace in Paris with the driver having lost control of the vehicle.
Nuñez said there was violence in other places in France, confirming that 780 had been detained in total, 480 of them in the Paris area alone.
“What we’re seeing is that there are people turning up who aren’t Paris Saint-Germain fans,” Nuñez said.
“We’ve seen this clearly in Paris, but it’s happened in the provinces, too. They’re wearing Paris Saint-Germain shirts, but they’re not even watching the match.”
PSG defended last season’s title after beating Arsenal in a dramatic penalty shootout in Budapest yet the ugly scenes in Paris and elsewhere have marred the occasion
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Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire wrote on X: “PSG’s victory in the Champions League is a historic moment for Paris. The vast majority of Parisian women and men celebrated it with joy, unity, and respect. But I cannot gloss over the violence and damage committed last night in several areas of the capital. It is unacceptable.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies attacking the shared property of Parisian women and men. I condemn these acts with the utmost firmness. These isolated acts will take nothing away from our collective pride.”
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At his news conference, Nuñez thanked law enforcement personnel.
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He said: “Faced with individuals who sought to disrupt the celebrations by smashing and looting, the response was one of firmness, arrest and the restoration of public order, even as a great deal of violence was directed specifically at the security forces. Their courage commands our admiration.
“Now, under the authority of the public prosecutors’ offices, it is time for judicial investigations to identify and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Last season, when PSG celebrated winning their first Champions League trophy, two people died and 192 were injured, while 559 people were detained.
