Burning vehicles. Tear gas. Fireworks. Stampede. Smoke. Chaos unfolded on the streets of France's capital, Paris, after the Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the second year in a row defeating Arsenal on Saturday (May 30).
If you search for 'Paris' on any social media platform, your feed will be flooded with photos and videos of violence in the capital. Among those is a video of the Eiffel Tower said to be "burning."
A social media user shared an 18-second video of the 19th century tower, claiming it was on fire. The user wrote: "Paris is burning. The fire reaches the Eiffel Tower. The fall of the West."
The video shows parts of the tower shrouded in thick black smoke, giving the illusion that the iconic tower itself is on fire.
When NDTV looked for the source of the video, it found that the clip was first shared by an X (formerly Twitter) user named Luc Auffret, who mentioned a fire incident 'near' the Eiffel Tower.
A fire broke out near the banks of the Seine, sending thick clouds of smoke into the air.
The user wrote: "The Eiffel Tower is shrouded in a cloud of smoke following a fire outbreak on the Seine riverbanks. The situation remains highly tense in this area."
La Tour Eiffel est noyée sous un nuage de fumée après un départ de feu sur les quais de seine.
— Luc Auffret (@LucAuffret) May 31, 2026
Situation toujours très tendue dans ce secteur.#PSG #PSGARS #Arsenal #UCLfinal #Paris pic.twitter.com/89XVXjfRho
The Paris Saint-Germain beat Arsenal by 4-3 on penalties and secured the Champions League title for the second year in a row. To celebrate PSG's Champions League win, the Eiffel Tower was lit in the club's colour - red, white, and blue.
However, soon the violence took over the capital, resulting in large-scale destruction.
Another viral video shows a group of men dancing and jumping over a burning car with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
A similar chaos unfolded last year after PSG's win. Therefore, France was ready, at least they thought so. Some 22,000 police officers were deployed across France for the game, including 8,000 in Paris, after unrest marred PSG's win in the competition last year. Paris tram lines were halted, several metro stations were shut, and bus traffic was halted in places in a bid to minimise disturbances.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also shared a video of the torched vehicles and people running around for life on X and wrote: "Problems in Paris."
Problems in Paris pic.twitter.com/KOU8r5UF4S
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 31, 2026
"We've had more than 890 arrests. In total, that's 45 percent more than last year," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told broadcaster France Inter, adding that nearly 180 law enforcement officers had been injured.
The Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, which was to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.
The mayhem that the 'iron lady' witnessed over the weekend is painful to watch.
"As a little girl I dreamed of one day going to Paris, clipping a lock on the bridge, standing beneath the Eiffel Tower, and eating real French pastries and cuisine. As a grown woman I wanted to stand in awe of the wonders of Western civilization our ancestors built," a social media user wrote on X.
As a little girl I dreamed of one day going to Paris, clipping a lock on the bridge, standing beneath the Eiffel Tower, and eating real French pastries and cuisine.
— White Girl (@WhiteGirl1776) May 31, 2026
As a grown woman I wanted to stand in awe of the wonders of Western civilization our ancestors built.
That dream… pic.twitter.com/Umxzux5Kxz
"That dream is being erased right now by third world invaders who are burning and tearing it to the ground," she added.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
