Incidents took place on Saturday evening after Morocco and France qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup, with at least 170 arrests in France, including 100 in Paris, we learned from police sources and from from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
About 20,000 people had gathered in the evening on the Champs-Élysées, according to the Paris police headquarters. Of the 100 people arrested, 80, including 23 minors, were taken into custody in the capital, detailed the prosecution.
They were placed in police custody in particular for “participation in a group, crowd, violence against persons holding public authority, rebellion, damage and possession of explosives”, detailed the prosecution. Eleven other people “are subject to free auditions”, he said.
No significant incidents reported
The incidents broke out around 11 p.m. “Projectiles were thrown at the security forces, three two-wheeled vehicles were set on fire and a barricade was erected,” the Paris police headquarters told AFP. “The front of a cafe was damaged, the window of a starred bank and an entrance hall suffered damage,” added the prefecture, which specifies that no “significant incident has been reported”.
According to the police headquarters, 19 police officers were slightly injured. Elsewhere in France, 70 people were arrested (in police areas), mainly for throwing projectiles, outrages or rebellion, according to a police source on Sunday.
This assessment concerns only the police zones, i.e. the main agglomerations, but not the rural zones covered by the gendarmerie. The gendarmerie had no consolidated report of possible arrests in its sector. In police areas, 33 police officers were also slightly injured, according to the police source.