The images made the rounds on social networks: smoke bombs, fireworks… A group of supporters of the Moroccan football club Wydad Athletic Club from Casablanca (Morocco) gathered Friday evening in the west of Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower, to celebrate their 20th anniversary.
Except that, as Le Parisien learned this Sunday morning from a police source, this “demonstration, although non-violent and very brief, remains totally illegal”: nothing had therefore been declared in advance. An investigation was opened and entrusted to Paris territorial security.
In the images broadcast Friday evening on social networks, it is possible to see several dozen supporters massed on the banks of the Seine, red smoke bombs lit and setting off fireworks. Their precise number is still difficult to estimate: these were “small gatherings”, according to statements to Le Parisien on Saturday evening by the mayor of the 15th arrondissement of Paris Philippe Goujon.
“No disturbance to public order”
According to our information, this group of individuals gathered around 11:30 p.m. on the Mirabeau and Grenelle bridges (15th arrondissement) “as well as on the adjoining quays”. The police then received several reports. Still according to our police source, law enforcement personnel went to the site. The event having lasted “less than a minute”, the police observed “no disturbance to public order upon their arrival”.
At the same time, other police officers who were nearby, on another mission, also went to the scene, after seeing the fireworks. Here again, “no particular nuisance” was observed, we are told. Police personnel were therefore “mobilized as soon as they learned of the event”.
But, our police source slips, “if these actions had led to a major and lasting disturbance” – which was not the case – everything would have been “done to put an end to it”.
As of Saturday evening, the City of Paris mentioned “small fireworks” in our columns, which contrasts with the impressive images broadcast on social networks. One of them, for example, an aerial one, would have required the use of a drone in an area close to the military site of Balard (15th century). Were the images therefore doctored by artificial intelligence before their publication? No answer to this question at this stage.
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