Rihanna may have under-estimated her popularity when she posted on Twitter the arrival time of her Eurostar train at the Gare du Nord.
But on Saturday night the singer was far from flavour of the month in Paris after being accused of starting a “riot” at the station and then launching a foul-mouthed rant against the French.
The 24-year-old was swamped by hundreds of screaming youngsters as she arrived in Paris on Saturday night.
And afterwards Rihanna, who is from Barbados, tweeted to her 25 million followers: ‘The French are [expletive] insane ... I just had to fight my way out of a damn train station!!!’
A security chief hit back, branding her “utterly irresponsible”. He said: “It was absolute chaos, and all Rihanna’s fault. Fans had her train number and its arrival time. The result was a mass of people waiting on the platform.”
A 19-year-old fan said the star had just one bodyguard. “He was a big guy, but he didn’t have a chance with a riot going on.”
She added: “It got really nasty. Rihanna was looking pretty scared at times but was also very aggressive.” Le Parisien newspaper described the episode as a “riot in Paris”, and accused Rihanna of having caused it.
The security source said Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Gwyneth Paltrow had recently travelled “incognito” on the Eurostar. “There is never any problem because these celebrities don’t tell the world,” said the source. “They are gracious, well-mannered and modest.”
