Video of the cigarette-lighting incident spread on social media and caused outrage in France

The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. A man stepped over a chain barrier beneath the Arc de Triomphe to light a cigarette from the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Photo / Getty Images

The video set off outrage in France and across the internet: A man stepping nonchalantly over a chain barrier beneath the Arc de Triomphe to light a cigarette from the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The man could face criminal charges in Paris, where he was arrested yesterday.

The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office declined to name the man but said in a statement that he “acknowledges the facts” of the episode.

“This unworthy and deplorable act undermines the memory of those who died for France,” said Bruno Retailleau, France’s Interior Minister, on social media.

The suspect is a 47-year-old Moroccan man who is a legal resident of France, and is likely to have his residency permit revoked, according to a French official with knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing legal process.

In France, violating a burial site, tomb, urn or monument can be punished by up to a year in prison and a fine of €15,000 ($29,500).

France’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was installed in 1920 beneath the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, and holds the remains of an unknown French soldier who died in World War I. The flame was lit in 1923 and has burned since.

Video of the cigarette-lighting episode began spreading on social media on Wednesday.

It shows the man, dressed in athletic wear, walking casually past a crowd of tourists gathered at the memorial.

He stoops to light his cigarette from the eternal flame and walks on.

The footage quickly prompted officials and others in France to call for the man’s arrest.

“This is not a simple deviation: it is a desecration,” said Patricia Miralles, the French Minister for War Veterans.

Across the world, war memorials with eternal flames have periodically been vandalised or desecrated.

In 2012, in Australia, a man was arrested and charged with putting out the eternal flame at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne with a fire extinguisher.

In June, Russian officials said they were investigating reports that a child had poured water on an eternal flame in the Yaroslavl region.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Ali Watkins

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