A violent street fight breaks out in front of the Squid Game’s pop-up store in Paris as people wait in line.
A hundred supporters of Netflix’s horror series Squid Game gathered outside and queued for hours to get into a pop-up store dedicated to the show.
Squid Game is a South Korean survival drama television series streaming on Netflix. The series, distributed by Netflix, was released worldwide on September 17, 2021.
Fans started to brawl in the street after a 700ft line formed to get into the Squid Game store, triggering a fight. Footage shared online shows several Parisians locked in a heated fistfight near the pop-up store located on Rue d’Alexandrie, in the 2nd arrondissement, on October 3.
Based on the videos that were taken at the scene, men and women could be seen attacking each other, with some onlookers stepping in to try and break up the fights.
Terrified onlookers ran away to avoid getting caught up in the chaos and police eventually arrived at the scene to enforce security and break up the fight.
The officers stationed themselves outside the store. It’s currently unclear what caused the fight, but one person who was able to get inside the store said she waited in line for hours.
According to one TikTok user who visited the location, some fans ended up queuing for more than seven hours on the street while waiting for their turn in the store.
The pop-up Squid Game store was only open in Paris for two days on October 2 and 3, giving fans an interactive experience at playing the games featured in the show, without the risk of death.
The visitors were given the chance to play classic Korean games featured on the show, including Ddakji, where players compete to flip red and blue paper tiles, and the honeycomb challenge, in which contestants have to carve shapes in a honeycomb wafer without breaking it.
Videos of fans inside the store have since gone viral on TikTok, with users sharing what games they were invited to play as part of the experience.
In one video with 11.3 million views, TikTok user @alexgoyaa shows fans playing a traditional South Korean game of Ddakji with red and blue tiles.
They were then led downstairs by a person in a red jumpsuit and full-face mask where they attempt to complete the honeycomb challenge by carving shapes into a piece of honeycomb, without letting break.
Squid Game is written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, it stars Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, O Yeong-su, Wi Ha-joon, Jung Ho-yeon, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung.
The series centers on a contest where 456 players, drawn from different walks of life but each deeply in debt, play a set of children’s games with deadly consequences for losing for a chance to win a $38 million cash prize.
Though initially scripted in 2008, Hwang had been unable to find a production to support the script until Netflix around 2019 found interest as part of their drive to expand their foreign programming offerings.
Hwang wrote and directed all nine episodes himself. The show received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with praise for its performances, originality, atmosphere, and themes. Within a week, it became one of Netflix’s most-watched programs in several regional markets.
The story centers around gambling addict Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and his childhood friend Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), a disgraced banker wanted by the police.
Korean-made Squid Game is currently the most-streamed show in the US and in the UK.