By Lucas Hélin
Published 7 hours ago, Updated 1 minute ago
A police officer in the Moulins district of Nice during an anti-drug operation. Valéry Hache / AFP
Several young hooded individuals met to fight, Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon. Two of them were injured after being beaten with a baseball bat and a knife.
Le Figaro Nice
Scenes of tension at the start of the week in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), in the famously sensitive Moulins district. Two fights between numerous young hooded individuals broke out, indicates the departmental directorate of public security. Several shots were even fired Monday evening, we are told, without causing any casualties.
It all started with the sudden attack, around 10 p.m., of a 20-year-old young man seated on a café terrace on the main square of Amaryllis. Around ten people rushed at him and beat him with baseball bats. He was found injured in the head with a significant bleeding wound. He had taken refuge in the lobby of a building. His vital prognosis is not in jeopardy.
The various police forces, quickly on the scene, managed to disperse the groups but were unable to make any arrests. However, they had to come under three mortar attacks. The police responded using bullet launchers and tear gas grenades. None of them were injured and calm returned a little later in the evening.
Investigation for “attempted homicide”
The events occurred near an important “deal” point nicknamed “the laundromat”. On site, three 12 caliber cartridges (for shotgun), a 9 millimeter case and two 7.65 millimeter cartridges were found. Images of this brawl circulated on social networks, where we heard several gunshots and where we saw an individual being chased and then molested on the ground.
The deputy for the 1st constituency of Alpes-Maritimes and president of the Republicans, Éric Ciotti, relayed this video on his Twitter account. The chosen one evokes “an outburst of violence” when her colleague from the 5th district, Christelle d’Intorni, even speaks of “urban guerrilla”. “I refuse to allow Nice to turn into a favela!”snapped the parliamentarian.
An investigation into “attempted homicide” was opened and entrusted to the local judicial police section. Following these incidents, the “CRS 81”, a specialized unit based in Marseille, will be mobilized in this Nice district, indicated the first deputy in charge of Security, Anthony Borré, while thanking the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. The police must arrive in the evening in order to restore order and fight against this type of urban violence, confirms the Maralpine prefecture.
A police officer injured in the second brawl
But in the meantime, a new brawl broke out in the same place this Tuesday afternoon. Around forty young protagonists, the majority of whom had masked their faces, faced each other. The hypothesis of reprisals cannot be ruled out, says a police source. A minor suffered a head injury “quite severely”. He had a significant wound certainly linked to a blow received with a knife or hammer.
In this second episode of disorder, a police officer was slightly hit in the leg after receiving a projectile. The agents dispersed the individuals without succeeding in arresting some of them, many taking refuge in the surrounding buildings. “Nice is taking the dangerous path of a Marseille-style scenario with perpetual violence”added Éric Ciotti in a press release, while being skeptical about the temporary deployment of the “CRS 81”.
Last week, a similar scene, without gunshots, took place and the police were able to arrest two suspects. The last shots at Les Moulins date back to February. On March 12, a “clearance” operation made it possible to arrest thirteen people in connection with drug trafficking. On his Twitter account, prefect Hugues Moutouh reminded “efficiency” as well as “unfailing determination” police officers to fight against this scourge. “Zero tolerance and no lawless zone”, he insisted. The State representative thus mentioned 399 operations carried out and 938 people arrested for nearly 31 kilos of drugs and more than 142,000 seized.
2024-03-26 16:45:44
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