2023-06-30 07:13:45
In the eastern suburbs of Paris, looted shops and fires on the roadway
” You share ? » : It is in a mocking tone that a woman in her thirties greets the return from the supermarket of a young man with his arms full of purchases. It is two o’clock in the morning, a crowd of about fifty people is massed at the doors of the Carrefour supermarket in Noisy-le-Sec.
“Well go do your shopping, there’s still plenty on the shelves”, his interlocutor replies laughingly before rushing into the entrance of his building, a tower of about fifteen floors which dominates the Jeanne d’Arc crossroads.
Like him, many of them set out again carrying the trade whose iron curtain and shop windows had been ripped open. The loot consists of everyday products, food, toilet paper and household products. More far-sighted than others, some equip themselves with shopping trolleys taking advantage of the darkness in which the city is plunged to disappear, the urban lights being all extinguished. The only lighting is that of the bin and pallet lights which block traffic on the road. There are no visible law enforcement or firefighters.
Upset decor
The industrial zone of Bas Pays in Romainville seems, in comparison, strangely calm. Cars rush without bothering with road signs. At the other end of the RN3, it is the police forces who block the passage in the Hoche district in Pantin. Important fires are visible a little further on the road. A CRS company charges. The smell of tear gas dominates over that of smoke. When questioned, a police officer judges the situation more tense than the day before and wonders when all this will stop.
It is difficult to provide a definitive answer to this question. Through the streets of Bagnolet, Romainville and Lilas, you just have to pass a few minutes apart in the same place to find a disrupted decor. At the foot of the Vasconi telecommunications tower, in the Gagarin city of Romainville, roadworks have been turned upside down. A vehicle ends up burning but no one is visible around.
At Les Lilas, another policeman assures him that it is much calmer this evening. A few meters further, you have to slalom between the trash can fires, and his colleagues from the municipal police are more tense. A fire truck maneuvers but does not stop to put out the starting fires.
The notion of calm has become strangely polysemic. Reached by telephone, the mayor of Romainville, François Dechy, adds to the uncertainty as to the definition of the term: “We have more staff than yesterday so it’s a little calmer. But we still have sixty individuals who wanted to attack the municipal police station around two in the morning. He reports the same type of attack to the Lilas. Supported by the national police, the municipal police managed to repel the attackers.
Julien Laroche-Joubert
#arrests #France #night #riots