France arrests man who lit cigarette from Unknown Soldier memorial flame
A man who lit a cigarette from a memorial flame at a major Paris war monument was arrested on Tuesday, the interior minister said, calling his actions "indecent and pathetic".
"The man who desecrated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by lighting a cigarette with the memorial flame was arrested in Paris for violating a burial site, tomb, urn, or monument erected in memory of the dead. He was taken into custody and admitted the facts," Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau wrote on X.
The video of a man stooping and lighting up from the fire at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, before walking calmly away watched by tourists, caused indignation when it was widely shared on social media.
The alleged infraction took place on Monday evening and the man was arrested on Tuesday afternoon, police told AFP.
"You cannot ridicule French remembrance and get away with it," Patricia Miralles, minister for veterans and remembrance, wrote on X.
The tomb, under the giant arch at the top of the iconic Champs Elysees avenue, contains the remains of a soldier killed in the First World War, laid there as a tribute to France's dead.
"This flame does not light a cigarette, it burns for the sacrifice of millions of our soldiers," said Miralles.
"This is an insult to our dead, to our history and to our nation."
AFP was not able to determine the origin of the video.
Le Figaro newspaper reported that it was filmed by a Latvian tourist on the evening of August 4 and first posted on TikTok.
The tourist told Figaro that the man did not appear drunk and seemed to be well aware of what he was doing.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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