PARIS (Reuters) – Thousands of Morocco fans took to the streets of Paris on Tuesday, waving flags, cheering and dancing in the cold, to celebrate their team’s surprise World Cup victory over Spain.
Huge crowds were clogging up the Champs Elysees, letting off fireworks and waving flares along with their country’s flag.
Paris is home to a large Moroccan migrant community – France’s second-largest after Algeria.
Honking Morocco fans caused a major traffic jam on the Quai motorway that runs alongside the River Seine, with many fans leaning out of car windows.
Fans also gathered in other French cities, including Nice, rejoicing at the largely unexpected win over highly fancied Spain.
Arabs from Baghdad to Tunis cheered as Morocco became the first Arabic-speaking country to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar, the first to be held in an Arab country.
(Reporting by Clotaire Achi, Tim Hepher Writing by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Toby Davis)
