Yesterday, the mayor of a Paris suburb said his home was attacked, calling it “an assassination attempt” on his family, as per reported by CNN…reports Asian Lite News
At least 78 people were arrested across France, including 20 in Paris, following unrest after the death of the teenager, who was fatally shot by a police officer in a Paris suburb, BFMTV reported.
BFM TV is a 24-hour rolling news and weather channel based in France and available globally via digital, cable and satellite television. The situation seemed calmer on Sunday with 45,000 gendarmes and police mobilized in the country after five consecutive nights of riots.
France has been rocked by a wave of protests following the death of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old of Algerian descent who was shot by a police officer in Nanterre earlier in the week.
Earlier on Sunday, the grandmother of the teenager appealed to protesters to end the violence and said that they should not damage schools or buses, CNN reported.
While talking with CNN’s affiliate BFMTV, the victim’s grandmother requested the protesters on Sunday and said, “They should not damage the schools, not break the buses, it was the moms who take the buses.”
“I’m tired,” the grandmother said, adding that Nahel’s mother, “doesn’t have a life anymore.”
Yesterday, the mayor of a Paris suburb said his home was attacked, calling it “an assassination attempt” on his family, as per reported by CNN.
“At 1:30 am, while I was at the city hall like the past three nights, individuals rammed their car upon my residence before setting fire to it to burn my house, inside which my wife and my two young children slept,” said Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun of L’Hay-les-Roses, a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, in a statement.
“While trying to protect the children and escape the attackers, my wife and one of my children were injured.”
Jeanbrun said that he had “no words strong enough to describe his emotion towards the horror of this night” and thanked police and rescue services for their help, CNN reported.
The Creteil prosecutor’s office has classified the incident as an “attempted murder,” prosecutor Stephane Hardouin told reporters Sunday.
Since the protest started on Tuesday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Saturday that most of the detained people are minors. The minister added that the average age of the more than 2,000 detainees is 17 years old.
Macron condemns attack on Paris Mayor’s home
Slamming the attack on Paris Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun’s home early Sunday morning, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, called the incident “particularly shocking” and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
He made the remarks during her visit to the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses, a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris on Sunday. Along with her, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also visited the Paris suburb to show their support for local mayor Vincent Jeanbrun.
Amid the heavy protests, the house of a Mayor of a Paris suburb was attacked early Sunday morning.
Earlier in the day, PM Borne took to Twitter and called the attack as an “intolerable act” adding that the perpetrators will be prosecuted with the “utmost firmness”.
“The attacks on the mayor @VincentJeanbrun and his family are intolerable. To this elected representative of the Republic and to all the elected victims of violence, I repeat my solidarity and that of the Nation. The culprits of these heinous acts will be prosecuted with the utmost firmness,” he said on Twitter.
At the time of the attack, mayor Jeanbrun was staying in the heavily barricaded town hall. The rioters torched his car and rammed their own vehicle into his house. The mayor’s wife and two children were able to escape through the backyard during the assault, France 24 reported.
“At 1:30 a.m., while I was at the city hall like the past three nights, individuals rammed their car upon my residence before setting fire to it to burn my house, inside which my wife and my two young children slept,” said mayor Vincent Jeanbrun.
Protests have erupted in France after the death of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who was shot by a police officer in Nanterre earlier this week. The funeral of Nahel Merzouk took place at a mosque in Nanterre on Saturday amid heavy security presence.
Meanwhile, Germany is also watching the intense situation in France “with concern” and expressed confidence that the French President will find ways to improve the situation.
A day after President Emmanuel Macron postponed a state visit to his country over the violence, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday that he was following riots in France “with concern”, France 24 reported.
France is a “friendly neighbouring country” and Paris and Berlin together “make sure that the European Union, which is so important to our common future, works well,” Scholz told broadcaster ARD in an interview.
“That is why we are of course looking at (the riots) with concern, and I very much hope, and I am certainly convinced, that the French president will find ways to ensure that this situation improves quickly,” France 24 quoted Scholz as saying.
The German presidency announced Saturday that Macron was cancelling his scheduled visit over the nationwide violence in France.
The death of Nahel Merzouk has sparked a debate on policing in France’s marginalised communities and raised questions on whether race played a role in his death, the CNN report said.
The officer who is accused of shooting him was taken to jail. Nahel Merzouk’s mother Mounia while speaking to television station France 5 on Friday blamed only the officer who shot her son for his death. (ANI)
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