The French Minister of the Interior, Laurent Núñez, indicated this Monday that the incidents after the victory of Paris Saint Germain (PSG) in the Champions League final on Saturday have led to the arrest of 890 people and that 178 law enforcement officers have been injured.
The number of arrests is 45% higher than last year when PSG’s first victory in the Champions League took place, whose celebrations also degenerated into altercations, Núñez said in an interview with the France Info station.
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“We knew that these celebrations were going to lead to riots, riots, looting, attacks against law enforcement. That’s why we had a large (police) device and there were extreme firmness slogans in the interventions. This is what has been done systematically,” he said to explain the increase in arrests.
“This work has been done well,” he stressed before thanking the police and gendarmes for their action, and emphasized that they were victims of ‘systematic attacks, the launching of projectiles, mortar shots’ and pyrotechnics. Regarding the reasons for this violence, the minister implied that the reasons must be sought beyond football.
In a parallel line, the Government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, insisted that the altercations that have surrounded the celebrations of PSG’s victory “are unacceptable and incomprehensible for our citizens”, and recalled the “colossal” security device that had been deployed in anticipation of incidents, with 22,000 police and gendarmes throughout France, 8,000 in Paris and its metropolitan area.
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Until shortly before midnight on Sunday, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office indicated that it had taken over the cases of 260 people who were under arrest, who are mainly accused of attacks on law enforcement forces (for around half), attacks on property, such as theft and destruction, and disturbances of public order.
a dead person
Among the multiple incidents that occurred on the night from Saturday to Sunday, the most tragic due to its consequences was the death of a 24-year-old motorcyclist who collided with some concrete blocks that had been placed on the Paris peripheral, the ring that surrounds the city.
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Another person was between life and death after having been rescued in cardio-respiratory arrest from the Seine River, into which she had voluntarily jumped during the celebrations of PSG’s victory.