A PSG fan has reportedly drowned in the River Seine after jumping in to celebrate the club’s Champions League victory over Arsenal, during a weekend of widespread disorder across France
A Paris Saint-Germain football supporter drowned after leaping into the River Seine to celebrate victory over Arsenal, it emerged today. The unnamed man was confirmed as the second casualty of a weekend of mayhem after he was discovered beneath the Louis-Philippe Bridge, near Notre Dame Cathedral, on Sunday morning.
His death occurred as 790 people were detained for violence connected to PSG securing their European Champions League title by defeating the London club. “River police retrieved the body from the water at around 7am, but attempts to resuscitate the man, who was in his 30s, failed,” an investigating source said on Monday.
“Witnesses described how he was out celebrating PSG’s win, and had been drinking heavily before jumping into the water.”
Authorities have launched an investigation into the tragedy and have appealed to anyone who was in the area at the time to speak to police.
A second man who leaped into the river on Sunday remains in a critical condition in a Paris hospital.
“Despite the care provided by the Emergency Medical Service at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, the victim, he suffered a cardiac arrest,” said the same source. He was rushed to hospital, and remained “in a critical condition,” he added.
An unidentified 23-year-old on a motorbike also died in the early hours of Sunday after colliding with a concrete block on the Paris ring road. Safety cones around the obstacle had been removed by celebrating PSG fans, who had flooded on to the road illegally.
A statement from Paris prosecutors stated: “CCTV footage confirmed that the individual was the sole person involved in the accident, and showed that the traffic cones marking the barrier had been removed by pedestrians.”
Prosecutors also initiated an attempted murder investigation following a stabbing incident involving an unidentified 17-year-old male near the Champs Élysée.
“He was attacked by four others in the early hours of Sunday, in violence linked to the football,” said a source close to the investigation. “The victim fell into a coma, and remained in hospital intensive care later in the day.
“The suspects responsible for the attack are being pursued, and currently face charges of attempted murder.”
Elsewhere in Paris, shops were ransacked, buildings set ablaze, fireworks aimed at officers, and other major roads brought to a halt. Numerous police officers were severely injured, including one seriously in Agen, in the south-west, after he fell and cracked his head open.
Widespread unrest was also reported in towns and cities including Rennes, Strasbourg and Grenoble. Tear gas and baton charges were deployed by the police in greater Paris, where some 8000 officers were on duty to manage the chaos.
An Interior Ministry spokesperson revealed there were “at least 790 arrests in total”, with nearly 400 in Paris.