France arrests man who lit cigarette from war memorial flame in Paris

A man who lit a cigarette from a memorial flame at a famous war monument in Paris has been arrested, according to France's interior minister.

A video posted on social media shows a man stooping to light a cigarette from the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, before walking away.

The incident took place on Monday evening and the man was arrested on Tuesday afternoon, according to police. The alleged culprit has not been identified.

France's Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the act was "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," Retailleau wrote on X on Tuesday.

The memorial, which was first unveiled in 1920, holds the remains of a soldier killed in World War I and serves as a tribute to all of France's war dead.

France's Minister for Veterans and Remembrance Patricia Miralles said she was filing a case with the Paris public prosecutor's office over the incident.

"This flame does not light a cigarette, it burns for the sacrifice of millions of our soldiers," Miralles wrote on X.

"This is an insult to our dead, to our history and to our nation. You cannot ridicule French remembrance and get away with it."

The video of the incident was filmed by a Latvian tourist and first posted to TikTok, according to Le Figaro newspaper. The tourist told the paper that the man did not appear drunk and seemed to be fully aware of his actions.

Euronews could not independently verify the footage.