Latest news with #ArcDeTriomphe
Yahoo
09-08-2025
- Yahoo
Man sparks outrage lighting cigarette with eternal flame at Arc de Triomphe
A man was caught on video lighting his cigarette using the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at Paris's Arc de Triomphe on August 4. The flame marks the burial site of an unidentified French soldier killed in the First World War, and is meant to honor all soldiers who have died for France throughout history. The act has been widely condemned as disrespectful.
ABC News
05-08-2025
- ABC News
France arrests man who lit cigarette from flame at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
A man who stopped to light a cigarette from the fire at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in France has been arrested. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the man was taken into custody and "admitted the facts", 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 wrote on social media. The video, which sees a man stooping and lighting up from the fire before walking calmly away while watched by tourists, caused indignation when it was widely shared on social media. The alleged infraction took place on Monday evening, local time, 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-Élysées avenue, contains the remains of a soldier killed in World War I, 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 Ms 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. AFP
