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.<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the man was taken into custody and “admitted the facts”, calling his actions “indecent and pathetic”.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The alleged infraction took place on Monday evening, local time, and the man was arrested on Tuesday afternoon, police told AFP.<\/p>\n
“You cannot ridicule French remembrance and get away with it,” Patricia Miralles, minister for veterans and remembrance, wrote on X.<\/p>\n
The tomb, under the giant arch at the top of the iconic Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es avenue, contains the remains of a soldier killed in World War I, laid there as a tribute to France’s dead.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Visting world leaders including Joe Biden have paid at their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.<\/p>\n
“This flame does not light a cigarette, it burns for the sacrifice of millions of our soldiers,” said Ms Miralles.<\/p>\n
“This is an insult to our dead, to our history and to our nation.”<\/p>\n
AFP was not able to determine the origin of the video.<\/p>\n
Le Figaro newspaper reported that it was filmed by a Latvian tourist on the evening of August 4 and first posted on TikTok.<\/p>\n
The tourist told Figaro that the man did not appear drunk and seemed to be well aware of what he was doing.<\/p>\n
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