​Violent  celebrations overshadowed France’s quarter-final victory over Morocco at the FIFA World Cup on July 9, but social media posts claiming to show footage of related fire and rioting in Paris are false. The videos were filmed weeks earlier during unrest following Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) UEFA Champions League win on May 31.”Fire reported near Eiffel tower amid Paris celebrations,” claims an Instagram post shared on July 10, 2026.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe attached footage shows a plume of smoke near the Eiffel Tower.Screenshot of the false post captured on July 10, 2026, with a red X added by AFPAnother  Instagram post from July 10 shares a video compilation of rioting on the streets.”Paris is burning as the Moroccan migrants have started riots after Morocco lost to France by 2-0 in the World Cup knockouts,” reads text superimposed on the video.Screenshot of the false post captured on July 10, 2026, with a red X added by AFPThe visuals circulated online after France advanced to the World Cup semi-finals after beating Morocco 2-0 in a quarter-final played in the US state of Massachusetts ( archived link ).The resulting celebrations turned deadly in France and descended into chaos on the streets of London.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA 17-year-old girl died in northern France after falling from a truck during post-match celebrations.  The tragedy came as hundreds of people danced in the streets of Paris following the victory, watched by thousands of police on security duties ( archived link ).France had  urged its football fans to be responsible after previous high-profile matches led to unrest. Morocco won independence from France in 1956 and has a mostly settled relationship with the former colonial power, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Moroccans or French citizens of Moroccan descent ( archived link ).In central London, British police battled football fans early on July 10. One police officer was injured and four people were arrested following what police described as “violent disorder”.Xenophobic comments in Arabic and Hindi from users on Facebook ,  X and Instagram sharing the supposed visuals of the unrest in Paris suggest they believed they were related to the World Cup.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut they are not — the clips predate France’s quarter-final victory by several weeks.A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video of the Eiffel Tower led to the same  footage published in an Instagram post on May 31 ( archived link ).Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and the Instagram post, taken on July 10, 2026A reverse image search for keyframes from the second video surfaced an Instagram post published by The Wall Street Journal  on June 1 ( archived link ).Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and the Instagram post, taken on July 10, 2026Both captions indicate they depict  unrest that marred Paris