Were 12 (or 89 or 123 or 135) people killed and 870 wounded in riots following a French victory in the World Cup? And were 13000 cars torched? No, that's an exaggeration by a satirical Belgian website that posted several stories about the actual riots that were taking place during the night following France winning the World Cup.
The story originated from an article published on July 16, 2018 titled "Emeutes en France: Déjà 12 morts, 240 voitures brûlées, 870 blessés" (archived here) which opened:
Flash info: Plus d'infos à venir. Victoire: Bilan meurtrier à Paris: 89 morts, 13000 voitures brulées, 123 tués légers La baise de consommation de sites X pendant la coupe du monde. (Graphiques) Photos mise à jour en continu: ????L'Intermarché de l'avenue de la grande armée pillé #FRACRO pic.twitter.com/62EdDlb9yK -- Yahoo Sport France (@YahooSportFR) ...
(Translated headline: "Riots in France: Already 12 dead, 240 cars burned, 870 wounded")
The social media summary of that story looked like thisl:
Emeutes en France: Déjà 12 morts, 240 voitures brûlées, 870 blessés
Flash info: Plus d'infos à venir. Victoire: Bilan meurtrier à Paris: 89 morts, 13000 voitures brulées, 123 tués légers La baise de consommation de sites X pendant la coupe du monde. (Graphiques) Photos mise à jour en continu: ????L'Intermarché de l'avenue de la grande armée pillé #FRACRO pic.twitter.com/62EdDlb9yK -- Yahoo Sport France (@YahooSportFR) ...
Later on it followed with:
Victoire: Bilan meurtrier à Paris: 89 morts, 13000 voitures brulées, 123 tués légers
Flash info: Plus d'infos à venir. Victoire: Bilan meurtrier à Paris: 89 morts, 13000 voitures brulées, 123 tués légers La baise de consommation de sites X pendant la coupe du monde. (Graphiques) Photos mise à jour en continu: 🔥L'Intermarché de l'avenue de la grande armée pillé #FRACRO pic.twitter.com/62EdDlb9yK - Yahoo Sport France (@YahooSportFR) ...
(Victory: death toll in Paris: 89 dead, 13000 cars burned, 123 lightly killed)
And with:
France: Le bilan monte à 135 décès graves, 1200 blessés.
Commentaires
(France: death toll mounts to 135 gravely killed, 1200 injured)
In reality there were riots but the numbers were much lower. Le Parisien reported:
Incidents après la victoire des Bleus : deux morts, des heurts et 292 gardes à vue
La victoire des Bleus en finale de la Coupe du monde de football, dimanche, à Moscou, a été endeuillée par deux accidents mortels, dans l'Oise et en Haute-Savoie. Lors de cette soirée, des heurts opposant notamment forces de l'ordre et " casseurs " ont également éclaté dimanche à Paris et en régions, en marge des rassemblements festifs célébrant la victoire française.
(Incidents after French victory: two dead, wounded and 292 arrested)
The two people killed were accident victims, the deaths did not have to do with the riots.
Over the weekend about 850 cars were torched as well according to The Local:
France sees 850 cars torched on Bastille Day but why do they do it?
A total of 845 cars were torched across France on Friday and Saturday night, France's Interior Ministry has reported. Police have arrested 237 individuals, including 92 minors, for wreaking havoc in the Paris area, with 183 taken into custody.
Nordpresse, the site putting out the headlines with the faked numbers, carries following disclaimer at the bottom:
© Copyright 2018 Nordpresse. Les articles sont soumis au droit d'auteur. Toute reproduction ou copie est interdite sans l'autorisation de l'auteur. Certaines informations présentes sur ce site sont satiriques et/ou parodiques, veillez à conserver un esprit critique, merci.
Translated:
© Copyright 2018 Nordpresse. All articles are protected by copyright. All reproduction or copying is forbidden without permission from the author. Certain information presented on this site is satirical or parodic in nature, please keep a critical mind, thanks.
Nordpresse is a quite known satire website but the story about the Paris riots was also being spread via the domain name "nicesoir.press", presumably in order to fool people who only saw the summary, title and images on Facebook. The site is hosted on the same IP address as nordpresse.be (176.31.110.25) and was used in the past to spread stories from Nordpresse as well.
