Madness in Paris after the Champions League: one dead and 780 stopped during the night

The celebrations in France for PSG’s Champions League victory against Arsenal turned into a night of urban guerrilla warfare. The toll of the unrest is very heavy and has affected the entire national territory, concentrating above all in the capital Paris.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez called the violence “absolutely unacceptable.” Despite the extraordinary deployment of 22,000 police officers to ensure public order, the situation degenerated in various areas of the city, leading to the arrest of as many as 780 people, with over 450 confirmed arrests.

The toll: one victim and hundreds injured

The official data provided during a press conference describe a dramatic situation. A 24 year old boy lost his life in a scooter accident on the ring road, in Porte Maillot, in the midst of chaos. Another 17-year-old youth is currently in a coma after being stabbed during a fight

The total injured are 219. Among these are also counted 57 law enforcement officers were bruised or injured in an attempt to stem the unrest; one of them suffered a serious head injury due to a fall in the town of Agen.

The controversies

This year’s very serious episodes surpass the already tragic numbers of the 2025 final. In front of journalists, Minister Nunez defended the actions of the police and the management of security: “I want to remember that we still remain a great country in the management of public order”, he declared.

The head of the French Interior Ministry then rejected the bipartisan criticisms coming from politics: on the one hand the left-wing opposition accuses him of having exasperated people with systematic arrests, on the other the right accuses him of having too weak an attitude towards the hooligans.