Saturday evening, forty people were arrested in the Eiffel Tower area after lighting smoke bombs. An arrest which was carried out in two stages.
As the smoke bombs are extinguished, the progress of the pyrotechnic demonstration by Parisian supporters at the Trocadéro on Saturday evening becomes clearer. According to our information, a first action was attempted on the Iéna bridge.
Indeed, a police source tells us that around 8 p.m., ten people were arrested on the bridge facing the Eiffel Tower. Earlier, a trader reportedly called the police after seeing “hooded men” preparing to light smoke bombs from the bridge.
In police custody in three Paris police stations
According to this same source, these ten people were arrested even before they used their pyrotechnic equipment. Then came the deployment and bursting, successful this time, of smoke bombs and fireworks from the Place de Varsovie and the Trocadéro esplanade (16th arrondissement).
This time, around thirty people set off fireworks and set off smoke bombs. All will be arrested around 9 p.m., these celebrations being illegal. In this group there are 27 men and three women. There are also two minors.
All these people were then placed in police custody in different Parisian police stations, namely that of Paris Center, that of the 5th and 6th arrondissements and that of the 7th.
“No deterioration was noted”
When contacted, the police headquarters did not wish to provide further details on the subject. The Paris prosecutor’s office specifies for its part that an investigation “of the counts of participation in a group formed with the aim of committing violence or damage and detention without legitimate reason and prohibited by incendiary device order”. “No signs of damage have been noted,” the prosecution said on Sunday evening.
On Sunday evening, custody of 26 arrested adults was lifted, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. Twelve people (including a woman) will be brought on Monday “before the prosecutor’s delegate with requests for payment of a citizen contribution to a victim assistance association” for “facts of possession of a pyrotechnic article of category F4, T2 or P2 by a person who does not hold a training certificate or an authorization”, also specifies the public prosecutor.
