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POKEMON

French teens storm police barracks in hunt for Pokemon

Teens bursting into a police barracks, people crashing cars or wandering onto train tracks, the arrival of Pokemon Go in France has provoked a whole load of trouble.

Published: 28 July 2016 09:45 CEST
French teens storm police barracks in hunt for Pokemon
Photo: AFP
The French have got Pokemon fever, and it's starting to worry authorities. 
 
The latest head-turning incident of Pokemon hunting gone wrong saw two teens trying to catch a hard-to-reach Pokemon by scaling the walls of a former Gendarmerie building in Saint-Hilaire, near Carcassonne in southern France. 
 
The two were arrested, but were released when police decided it was a one-off incident. 
 
Pokemon Go, an interactive app that's proven popular worldwide, has caused all kinds of problems in France since it was launched on Sunday, with police urging citizens to be careful after the game caused a series of accidents. 
 
On Monday, a 22-year-old in eastern France's Besancon crashed his vehicle into a wall after attempting to catch a Pokemon while driving. 
 
A similar thing happened on the same day in northern France's Aisne, when a woman crashed her car on the A4 highway trying to find a Pokemon of her own. No one was injured in the crash, reported Normandie Actu news site. 
 
And Bordeaux to the west saw there were scenes of chaos when masses of players charged through a park in the hunt for a rare breed of Pokemon (see a video here). 
 
One local police prefecture, below, tweeted out a reminder that it was forbidden to drive and chase Pokemons at the same time. “Don't lose track of reality,” it added. 
Rail operator SNCF has also issued warnings to passengers, reminding them not to get on the tracks in the hunt for Pokemon. 
Parisian firefighters also took to Twitter to warn the public about the risks of playing the game: “Catch them, but not at the cost of your life!”
 

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POKEMON

French mayor bans Pokemon Go app from his village

Bressolles, a small village almost smack bang in the middle of France, has become the first in France to try and ban the new gaming sensation Pokemon Go.

Published: 17 August 2016 11:06 CEST
French mayor bans Pokemon Go app from his village
Photo: AFP
The mayor of Bressolles, Fabrice Beauvois, believes Pokemon Go is simply too much of a threat to his 800-strong community. 
 
He made headlines on Wednesday after signing a municipal decree to ban the game, and he reportedly contacted the game's producer Niantic in an effort to get the village wiped off the Pokemon map, reported Le Progres newspaper. 
 
Beauvois said that the game caused “too much distraction for pedestrians and for motorists who are looking at their phones while driving”.
 
He said that he believed it was his duty to prevent what he called “a contagious and uncontrolled spread of the phenomenon”, not to mention that it is “dangerously addictive” for young people.
 
He also called for people to form evening groups in a bid to help prevent people from playing the game. 
 
 
While such a ban might be hard to enforce without the help of Niantic, the mayor is not wrong to think the game can be dangerous.

Indeed, France has already seen several accidents involving motorists and Pokemon. 
 
In July France saw at least two car accidents because of the game. And some teens were arrested in southern France for bursting into a police barracks trying to hunt Pokemon. 
 
And while no village or town in France has managed to ban the game yet, it has been banned from certain sites. 
 
Earlier this month, a French World War I memorial was removed from Pokemon Go following complaints about players gathering to do battle at a site containing the remains of 130,000 soldiers.
 
Elsewhere, authorities in Iran banned the app over unspecified “security concerns”, with the Pentagon in the US urging its troops to avoid the game too.
 
French teens storm police barracks in hunt for PokemonPhoto: AFP
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