He stated his spouse and certainly one of his youngsters had been injured whereas attempting to flee. He was working within the city corridor when the attack occurred, he added.
“Tonight, a milestone was reached in horror and ignominy,” Jeanbrun tweeted Sunday, calling the attack “an assassination attempt of incredible cowardice.”
Politicians broadly condemned the attack, and Gérald Darmanin, France’s inside minister, stated an tried homicide investigation was opened.
Authorities in Beijing additionally stated Sunday {that a} bus carrying Chinese vacationers was attacked final week. The home windows of the bus had been smashed, and several other folks had been calmly injured, the Foreign Ministry said.
China’s Consulate in Marseille “immediately lodged complaints with the French side, demanding that they ensure the personal and property safety of the Chinese citizens,” the ministry stated.
He Shuai, head of consular providers in Marseille, told China’s Southern Metropolis Daily that the attack towards the 41-person group occurred on Thursday night.
Police within the Bouches-du-Rhône division, the place Marseille is positioned, confirmed in a cellphone name Sunday {that a} bus containing a Chinese tour group was attacked throughout the riots within the metropolis however stated they might not affirm whether or not anybody was injured due to the amount of incidents that befell in current days.
Police stated the bus was attacked as a result of it was close to a building website the place rioters had gone to search out extra projectiles. The bus was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and was not focused particularly due to the passengers’ race, police stated.
France has been shaken by protests, lots of which turned violent, over the dying of Nahel M., a 17-year-old of North African descent who was shot by a police officer throughout a site visitors cease in a suburb of Paris final week. The incident has infected anti-police and anti-state sentiment in France, significantly within the suburbs of main cities, or “banlieues” — the place minority communities typically grapple with discrimination and excessive unemployment.
Tens of hundreds of cops have been mobilized to cope with vandalism, looting and destruction of public property in cities throughout France. Police have fired tear fuel into crowds of protesters.
Saturday evening was “calmer” than earlier nights due to the “resolute action” of legislation enforcement, Darmanin stated early Sunday on Twitter. Still, the Interior Ministry stated that 719 people were arrested in a single day throughout the nation and that 45 cops had been injured.
Stéphane Hardouin, the prosecutor for the Val-de-Marne division, which L’Hay-les-Roses is a part of, stated that “a burning vehicle entered the enclosure of the mayor’s pavilion” early Sunday and was stopped, apparently by a low wall. The automobile broken the entrance gate and the household’s automobile, he stated.
He stated preliminary details recommended that “the vehicle was launched to burn” the mayor’s home. An accelerant was present in a Coca-Cola bottle throughout the investigation, he stated.
“Hearing a noise and seeing flames, the mayor’s wife and her two children fled through the back garden,” the prosecutor stated. The mayor’s spouse injured her tibia whereas fleeing, he stated. The youngsters are 5 and 7, he added.
Fifty-six folks had been arrested overnight in Marseille, a metropolis with a big inhabitants of residents of North African descent that has been on the coronary heart of French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for city renewal outdoors of the capital. Several shops had been looted and trash cans set on fireplace as police in riot gear unfold all through town, France 24 reported.
It was there, on Thursday, that the Chinese tour group was caught up within the riots, and its bus attacked for 5 to 6 minutes, in response to He, of the Chinese consulate.
A lady who was on the bus told the state-run Hangzhou Transportation 918 radio station that police didn’t come to the group’s rescue throughout the attack. The lady, recognized solely by her surname, Ma, stated the group was on its solution to a resort in Marseille round 10:30 p.m. when over a dozen masked folks wearing black began hurling bricks on the bus. Some of the attackers tried to board the bus earlier than being rebuffed by passengers, Ma stated, in response to the radio station.
Several tour members had been injured by damaged shards of glass, and others sustained minor accidents when attempting to cease the attackers from getting on the bus, she continued. The group was evacuated to Geneva, a few 4½-hour drive from Marseille, arriving there Saturday, she stated.
In Paris, the Interior Ministry deployed additional safety across the Champs-Elysées, a serious procuring avenue that results in the Arc de Triomphe monument, after calls to focus on the world had been issued on social media. Nearly 400 officers patrolled the sector Saturday evening and into Sunday, dispersing teams of younger folks and shutting down the avenue round 12:30 a.m., according to Le Monde. Police stated they arrested 37 individuals who carried weapons and posted photographs of seized materials, together with what seemed to be brass knuckles.
#ChampsElysées | 3⃣7⃣5⃣ contrôles en amont ont été effectués par les #FDO aux abords du secteur et sur les Champs-Élysées.
➡️ 3⃣7⃣ interpellations, pour port d’arme, port d’arme par vacation spot. pic.twitter.com/vHzWqjUtIS— Préfecture de Police (@prefpolice) July 1, 2023
The widespread protests started Tuesday evening, after Nahel was killed by a police officer in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. Prosecutors stated Nahel was driving dangerously and refused to cease the automobile for an inspection when requested by two site visitors cops on bikes. The officers pulled alongside the automobile and pointed their weapons at Nahel, and one officer fired a bullet that penetrated the teenager’s arm and chest.
The officer who fired the shot was detained and is being investigated on an intentional murder cost.
Rick Noack contributed to this report.
