2023-07-01 17:28:00
After the “astonishment”, the action: many merchants in Lyon and Grenoble worked on Saturday to repair or protect their storefronts, in the middle of the barges who came to take advantage of the summer sales, after a night peppered with violence and looting, awaiting reinforcements for the evening.
A great cleaning effort had been made from the start of the morning in the arteries most affected by the rioting outbreaks which punctuated the night in Lyon, Grenoble and several other cities in the region. But still remained here and there, visible traces, broken glass, pieces of plastic hangers, melted residues of burnt garbage cans.
According to a police source, Lyon was with Marseille the most affected agglomeration in the country last night, in the episode of urban violence sparked by the death of young Nahel, shot dead by a police officer in Nanterre, in the Paris region.
In Grenoble, many traders have hastily installed wooden panels on their windows, broken or not, to protect themselves from thugs. Shops remained closed, iron curtain lowered, Wednesday during the summer sales period.
“Monday, I call (the real estate agency) Omnium and I put everything on sale, that’s enough”, launched, annoyed, the boss of a lingerie shop in the center of Lyon on Saturday morning, in a pedestrian street still strewn with debris.
“Holidays are over,” sighed a German father when he discovered the damage to his sedan.
The violence, of an “unprecedented” intensity according to the environmentalist mayor of Lyon Gregory Doucet, set fire to several working-class neighborhoods in the east of the Lyon conurbation with a total of 35 members of the police forces injured. Four police officers were notably hit in Vaulx-en-Velin by shotgun fire.
The thefts and damage committed by young people who came on foot, on scooters or by bicycle have affected at least forty stores in Lyon – motorcycles, watches, video games, household appliances, clothes, brand shoes…
Public buildings, including several town halls were attacked, according to the prefecture. Saturday morning, 49 police custody were in progress, according to the Lyon prosecutor’s office.
When the mayor of Lyon called for immediate reinforcements to complete the “insufficient number” of police officers mobilized to deal with the chaos, the Ministry of the Interior announced the dispatch, as of Saturday evening, of the CRS8, specialized in the policing and urban violence. The presence of the CRS will be “doubled from today in Grenoble, i.e. 80 instead of 40”, announced government spokesman Olivier Véran, adding that internal security forces based in the region, even at the Raid.
“Unheard of Brutality”
Mayor Eric Piolle expressed his “astonishment” and his “anger” after episodes of “unheard of brutality”.
After the looting that occurred in the center of Grenoble and the violence that ignited Echirolles, on the outskirts, the local prosecutor’s office reported on Saturday morning 53 police custody, with immediate appearances scheduled for Sunday and Monday morning, because of this “exceptional situation “.
Until late at night, as in Lyon, clashes opposed gangs of very mobile young people, firing rains of firework mortars at the police responding with tear gas canisters. About fifty businesses have been affected and a support unit set up, according to the prefecture.
“Curfew for minors”
Many towns in the region have also been affected by the violence, from Dijon to Valence, from Saint-Etienne to Annecy, via smaller towns, such as Annonay, in Ardèche, or Beaune, in the heart of wine-growing Burgundy.
After a night of looting in Saint-Etienne, where a hundred businesses were degraded to varying degrees, Mayor Gaël Perdriau (ex-LR) announced that he had issued a municipal decree “establishing a curfew for unaccompanied minors from 7 p.m. until Sunday 6 a.m. Stéphanois public transport was to stop operating on Saturday at 2:30 p.m., said the Stas management.
The town halls of Grenoble and Lyon have also taken measures to limit the use of scooters. And in Lyon, the various municipal groups have left aside their different policies to launch together an appeal “for calm, appeasement and responsibility for all”.
01/07/2023 17:26:38 – Lyon (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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