PSG's long-awaited triumph turned the French capital into a war zone (2 photos + 8 videos)
Well, let's crack open some popcorn and follow the crime news. Oh, I mean, sports news from the world's most romantic capital! 
Parisian PSG have done it again. The French giants won the Champions League for the second time in a row, defeating London's Arsenal in a dramatic penalty shootout (1-1 in regulation time, 4-3 on penalties).
While in normal countries victory is celebrated with champagne, in France, the main sponsors of football happiness are traditionally pogroms, tear gas, and mass riots.
This year's triumph was no exception. The celebration gradually escalated into organized urban fighting, and to understand the scale of the catastrophe, it's enough to look at the timeline of events.
Everything unfolded according to a classic Parisian scenario, where the line between catharsis and pogrom blurs in seconds. Around 20,000 people poured onto the Champs-Élysées.
At the same time, a huge crowd started a brawl near the home stadium, the Parc des Princes. About 150 radical ultras attempted to break through the stadium gates, but were met with fierce resistance.
Gendarmes are deployed to quell the unrest. To calm the unruly crowd, police use batons and begin spraying the streets with tear gas. At this point, central Paris is completely shrouded in thick smoke. In the 8th arrondissement, the crowd even attempted to storm a police station but was dispersed.
The clashes escalate into open aggression against the security forces. Instead of dispersing, the fans open fire on the "Pharaohs" with powerful pyrotechnics, including live fireworks and Roman candles. Groups of rioters manage to block the famous Parisian television ring (Peripherique) and begin building barricades out of rental bicycles.
Official results of the night:
416 arrests nationwide (283 of which were made in Paris).
6 cars burned to the ground (not counting dozens of trash cans and bicycles set ablaze).
7 police officers injured, two civilians injured (one was stabbed, the other managed to fall into the Seine).
Shop windows smashed, a bus stop completely destroyed, and a car burned right on the Place du Trocadéro, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
The current brutality of the gendarmes is completely understandable if you remember how similar celebrations ended last year. France also celebrated PSG's success back then, but the celebratory statistics read more like reports from a crime ghetto. One 20-year-old connoisseur of beauty was run over by a car in his joy. Apparently, the driver was also in a hurry to celebrate. And another, a 17-year-old, was so eager to show respect right outside the fan zone that he was accidentally (or perhaps not) stabbed in the chest.
While PSG's Qatari owners are popping open fine champagne, the mayor of Paris is counting the losses, and utility workers are clearing away the charred remains of the streets. The victory is undoubtedly historic. But judging by the footage from Paris, it's time for local residents to take out insurance not only on their cars, but also on their lives every time their club takes to the field.
