Morocco’s historic move to the World Cup semi-finals in Qatar sparked an outburst of joy among fans who took to the streets to celebrate; However, in Paris, these festivities showed their worst face, as the violence of Moroccan fans caused serious riots after the World Cup match. The police had to charge several of them and arrested at least 42 people.
Around 20,000 fans celebrated Morocco’s victory over Portugal in the quarter-finals of the World Cup on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Serious altercations were recorded there this morning which led to the arrest of 42 people, according to the latest report from the Police at dawn. In anticipation of them, a strong police unit with 1,220 officers had been deployed to the area. We must take into account that the other quarter-final was France-England, and that the French won, so one of the semi-finals will be, precisely, France-Morocco. High risk game, no doubt.
The police charge to evacuate the supporters of Morocco who came to celebrate the victory of their team on the Champs Elysées. pic.twitter.com/ZW5RG9jAU9
— Amar Taoualit (@TaoualitAmar) December 10, 2022
In Italy, a serious incident was also recorded. A 30-year-old man is in very serious condition having been stabbed in the neck this afternoon during the celebrations of Milano from the pass of the Moroccan national team to the semi-final of the World Cup in Qatar. According to the first police and carabinieri investigations collected by The Stampathe victim was assaulted on the Corso Buenos Aires promenade as she tried to stifle an argument between two other men and her attacker was reportedly identified as an “Eastern European man” on the run.
The injured, after being stabilized on the spot by the emergency services, was quickly transferred to the polyclinic of Milan, where his condition rapidly deteriorated after the detection of internal bleeding, according to medical sources.
In Brussels (Belgium), dozens of hooded youths threw objects at police officers, who responded with tear gas, he told the newspaper The evening police spokesperson Ilse van de Keerewho nevertheless confirmed “that there had been no significant damage”.
In the main cities of the Netherlands, supporters also took to the streets to celebrate Morocco’s victory under some “tension” and a heavy police presence.
There were riots in various places in amsterdamaccording to police, who around 8:00 p.m. issued an emergency order to evacuate several streets and ended up deploying a water cannon and making several arrests, public broadcaster NOS reported.