French police detain dozens after football celebrations

PARIS: French authorities detained 79 people in the second such wave of arrests during celebrations following Paris Saint-Germain´s football Champions League win, a police chief said Monday.

The PSG thrashed Inter Milan by a record 5-0 in Saturday evening´s final in Munich, flying back to Paris on Sunday for a triumphal parade along the Champs Elysees, then celebrations in a packed Parc des Princes stadium on the edge of the French capital.

The PSG winning the biggest prize in European club football for the first time sparked delirious festivities in France, but was marred by violence. On Sunday, “we saw a resurgence of individuals driven by malicious intent who were not really PSG supporters,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told RTL radio.

“We arrested 79 people, some of them in the night,” he said, adding that order had been restored before dawn. Some were detained over taking barriers and briefly blocking the ring road around Paris, while others had tried to vandalise businesses or fired fireworks on the Champs Elysees, he said. On Saturday night, police had made more than 500 arrests across France, the interior ministry said, after more than 200 cars were torched and police clashed with youths.