Darmanin said there had been “a certain number of inappropriate and disproportionate gestures” by police or gendarmes, which had been documented. He said that two officers had used teargas in a way that “was against the rules of its use” and had been referred to the police watchdog, where he had asked for them to be sanctioned.
He said police dispersion techniques would be reviewed – and that teargas had been the only technique available to riot police crowd-control units that night. He said other crowd-control measures, such asSeveral videos on Saturday night had shown teargas being sprayed into a spectator’s face.fans will be able to file legal complaints in France or to the French police watchdog, Darmanin said.
He insisted to the senate hearing that between 30,000 and 40,000 extra Liverpool fans had turned up to the match either without tickets or with counterfeit tickets. He said there were two types of ticket fraud – fakes that cost £50, bought in the street, which allowed fans to get past initial barriers; or sophisticated counterfeit paper tickets sold for €800 to €1200 .
The row has taken on huge political weight in France before parliamentary elections in less than two weeks, as opposition politicians on the right and left attacked the newly re-elected president Emmanuel Macron and the French government over what they called police failings and poor organisation.