More than 700 people were arrested over the violence across the country, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.
Hundreds of people were detained by police in Paris as violence swept through the capital late Saturday after the victory of Paris Saint-Germain football club in the UEFA Champions League final.
Thousands of supporters flooded the streets, vandalizing businesses, setting off fireworks and flares and clashing with police officers who deployed tear gas. More than 200 people were injured across the country, authorities said.
Some 780 people were arrested over the violence, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said. More than 50 officers were injured in clashes across the country, he said. A person was found dead after an accident on Paris’s ring road, which rioters tried to block overnight, according to media reports.
Nuñez called the disorder “absolutely unacceptable.”
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen wrote on X: “Only in France does a football club’s victory spark riots. Only in France does everyone feel compelled to lock themselves in their homes on the evening of a victory to avoid being confronted with violence,” she said.
Valérie Pécresse, leader of the Île-de-France region, which includes Paris, called for sanctions against those causing violence. “The brainless thugs who think they can smash everything are tarnishing the image of Paris and France!” Pécresse wrote in a post on X. “We must be able to celebrate on victory nights peacefully in Paris and the Île-de-France region!”
Similar riots took place in Paris last May after Paris Saint-Germain’s victory at the previous Champions League final, resulting in more than 500 arrests and two deaths and drawing widespread political condemnation.
Paris Saint-Germain defeated Arsenal in a dramatic final in Budapest after a 4-3 shoot-out following a 1-1 draw after extra time, becoming the first French club to win the competition twice.
The team will have a victory parade at the Champ-de-Mars on Sunday afternoon before being received by French President Emmanuel Macron. Some 6,000 police officers have been mobilized for the parade.
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