Violence reportedly broke out in Paris and several other parts of France after Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) won the UEFA Champions League on May 30, trumping Arsenal in the final.
Rioters vandalised and set fire to shops in some areas, and several vehicles were also attacked. French police detained around 780 people in connection with the unrest.
Amid these developments, a 37-second video began circulating on social media. In the first 18 seconds, several vehicles can be seen overturned on a street, with some of them on fire. In the latter part of the video, a crowd appears to be vandalising a bus or tram station.
The video has been shared on X with claims that it depicts the recent violence in Paris.
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Fact Check
To verify the claim that the viral video shows the recent violence in Paris, we conducted a reverse image search on its opening visuals. This led us to the same footage posted on December 24, 2022, by journalist
We also found another video uploaded on December 25, 2022, by the Facebook account of Brut, containing scenes identical to those in the viral clip. Remy Buisine reported this footage as well, and the caption confirmed it showed violence following an attack near the Kurdish Cultural Centre in Paris.
The latter portion of the viral video, showing a crowd damaging a bus or tram station, was traced through reverse image search to another video uploaded on December 25, 2022, by a Facebook account. The caption identified the location as Paris.
Additionally, we found a photograph matching scenes from the viral video in a report published on December 24, 2022, by a European media outlet. The report covered the violence that erupted in Paris after the December 23, 2022, attack on the Kurdish Cultural Centre.
According to media reports, the attack involved a shooting near the Centre that killed three people. The assailant was identified as a 69-year-old man named William M. Violent clashes broke out in Paris immediately after the incident.
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Conclusion
Evidence from our investigation confirms that the viral video being shared as footage of the recent violence in Paris is misleading. Both scenes are not recent; the visuals are more than three years old and linked to the unrest that followed the 2022 attack on the Kurdish Cultural Centre in Paris.
This video was first fact-checked by our Hindi team. You can read the report here.
Our Sources
Video shared by Remy Buisine on X on December 24, 2022
Video shared by Brut on Facebook on December 25, 2022
Video shared by Tibet Channel on Facebook on December 25, 2022
Article published by Novaya Gazeta on December 24, 2022