After France’s entry into the World Cup final, a youth was hit by a car and fatally injured during a celebration in Montpellier. The driver fled after the accident on Wednesday evening, the prefecture said. However, his car had already been secured near the scene of the accident and is now being examined. The teenager was taken to the hospital after the accident. He died shortly after being admitted to the hospital.
Celebrations erupted across the country following France’s victory over Morocco in the World Cup semi-finals. Thousands of people celebrated in different French cities. The jubilee parties were mostly peaceful, the authorities only reported isolated clashes during the night. In Montpellier, fans from both sides firecrackers fired at each other. In the meantime, there was also talk of a tense situation in Lyon. As the newspaper “Nice-Matin” reported, there were also conflicts between fans and the police in Nice and Cannes. In most cases, however, the police were able to restore order, and property was damaged. Because massive riots after the end of the World Cup game had been feared in advance, the French police had massively increased their security presence. In the greater Paris area alone, 5,000 officers were deployed. There, the police arrested 115 people on the fringes of the celebrations. According to police sources, among them was a group of around 40 people who are close to the ultra-right in the country.
Meanwhile, police in Belgium arrested around 100 people amid riots in Brussels following Morocco’s defeat in the semi-finals of the World Cup. These were due to disruption of public order, damage to two police vehicles and possession of prohibited fireworks, as the Belga news agency reported on Thursday night, citing the police. Traffic in parts of the city center was blocked as a precaution. There were also clashes in Antwerp. The police reported 85 arrests on Thursday morning, including 20 minors. Several people were also arrested here. Numerous police officers in protective clothing and burning piles of rubbish could be seen in pictures from the Belgian capital from the night. However, photos of Belga also showed residents who began cleaning the streets of rubbish in the evening.
Watch the video: Morocco’s football fans celebrate and riot in Brussels.
In Berlin, on the other hand, the mood remained calm overall, most people went home quickly after the game, said a police spokesman on Wednesday evening. They were prepared for a larger effort – especially in the event of a victory for the Moroccan team. In the Berlin-Neukölln district, fans set off a short fireworks display. A dpa reporter on site reported that the fans were proud of the team’s performance, which surprisingly made it to the semi-finals at the World Cup in Qatar. However, Wednesday’s defeat by France (0-2) ended the dreams of the Moroccans, who had become the first African team to reach the top four at a World Cup.
