The police had feared unrest - and should be right: a huge cloud of smoke rises above a large long-distance train station in Paris and moves across the entire district. What happened?
Paris (dpa) - There have been riots in Paris around the concert of a Congolese singer. Flames and a huge black cloud of smoke rose around the Gare de Lyon long-distance train station early Friday evening.
As the state railways SNCF announced on request, there were demonstrations outside the large train station in the southeast of the capital. Cars would also have burned. The station was evacuated and closed.
Because of fears of unrest, the Paris police prefecture had previously banned a demonstration around the concert arena near the Gare de Lyon. Congolese singer Fally Ipupa was supposed to give a concert there on Friday evening. According to the police, there had previously been calls for protests and struggles on social networks. There had already been two arrests in the afternoon.
Exile Congolese accuse the artist of being close to former President Joseph Kabila and his successor Félix Tshisekedi. In 2017, a Fally Ipupa concert at another Paris venue was reportedly canceled due to the risk of "serious disruption to public order".
Trains run from the Gare de Lyon to the south of France. Especially in the evening there is a lot of people. A reporter from the German Press Agency reported that there was a massive security presence on site, but there was no panic.
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Video of the incident