Did the Eiffel Tower burn in the protests in France?

Under the caption “The situation in France now,” two widely circulated images of the Eiffel Tower appeared as if it was on fire, amid speculation that it had been affected by the chaos of the protests.

However, a closer look at the two images, as compared by media outlets including the American website “Alhurra” in its fact-checking section “Is it really?” revealed that the Eiffel Tower has not been damaged so far due to the protests, which have been ongoing for nearly a full week.

The first image shows the Eiffel Tower seemingly on fire at first glance, but it quickly becomes apparent that what is being seen is a wooden model of the tower that was burned last month, while a French football club was celebrating a victory on June 25th. As for the second image, it features the famous tower, but what is shown is not a fire but rather smoke from fireworks captured on July 14th, 2005, as part of the celebrations for the French National Day.

While the protests and riots in France have started to recede after days of tension, many who reposted the images on social media pages linked them to the intense anger over the killing of a young immigrant of North African origin by a French police officer.

Since the evening of June 27th, France has not calmed down, despite the burial of the young man, Nael Marzouki (17 years old), which took place last Saturday. The protests, fueled by the situation of immigrants in France and concerns about racism in the actions of the police officer who killed the teenager, have continued to escalate.