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ATTACK

Brother of Marseille attacker arrested by Swiss police

Swiss police on Tuesday announced the arrest of a Tunisian couple including the brother of the assailant who fatally stabbed two young women in the French city of Marseille this month.

Published: 10 October 2017 18:20 CEST
Brother of Marseille attacker arrested by Swiss police
The attack took place outside the main train station in Marseille. Photo: AFP
The pair, both asylum seekers, were arrested on Sunday in Chiasso, near the Italian border.
   
“The man is the brother of the presumed perpetrator of the attack in Marseille,” a statement from Swiss federal police said, referring to Ahmed Hanachi, the 29-year-old who killed two women in the French coastal city on October 1st.
   
The man currently in Swiss custody is “known to foreign police services for his links to jihadist terrorist movements,” the statement added.
   
“His role in the Marseille attack, if he had one, is not yet clear.”
 
   
Federal police spokeswoman Cathy Maret separately told AFP that, in accordance with Swiss law, the detained husband and wife are due to be repatriated to Tunisia.
   
But that process will take several weeks at minimum and could be altered if another jurisdiction requests the couple's extradition.
   
Maret earlier said that police had information indicating the couple “could represent a threat to Switzerland's domestic security”
   
They were arrested at the migrant registration centre in Chiasso in Switzerland's Italian-speaking Ticino region, Maret added.
   
A French security source close to the investigation into the Marseille attack identified the man in Swiss custody as Anouar Hanachi.
   
The source said the arrests were requested by Tunisian authorities.
   
Swiss police would not confirm the identities of either the man or woman.
   
The news comes as one of Hanachi's other brothers, Anis, was arrested Saturday night in Italy, after French authorities issued an international arrest warrant.
   
Another one of his brothers and a sister were detained in Tunisia late last week and had been questioned by anti-terror investigators there. They have since been released.
   
Tunisian security sources have said they suspect both Ahmed and Anour Hanachi of being “extremists”.
   
Their father Noureddine has told AFP that he doubted his sons in Europe had been radicalized, adding that he had not heard from either for two months.
   
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Hanachi's attack, but French investigators have not yet found evidence linking him to the jihadist organization.

WEATHER

IN PICTURES: How floods and a bin strike left Marseille submerged in waste

Torrential rain hit the city of Marseille in the south of France on Sunday and Monday, just days after local waste collectors ended a week-long strike, leading to fears of "catastrophic" waste making its way to the ocean.

Published: 5 October 2021 13:00 CEST
IN PICTURES: How floods and a bin strike left Marseille submerged in waste
A man stands on a beach covered with cans following heavy rains and a strike of waste collectors in Marseille on October 5th. Photo: Nicolas TUCAT / AFP.

Marseille is located in the Bouches-du-Rhône département, which Météo France placed on red alert for heavy rain and flooding on Monday. Schools in the area shut and people were warned not to leave their homes as two months’ worth of rain fell in a single day in the Mediterranean city, after heavy rains had already caused flooding on Sunday night.

The situation was compounded by the fact that uncollected garbage was blocking storm drains in certain parts of the city – drains which would normally be cleared ahead of heavy rain – and making it more difficult for emergency services to intervene.

The city’s waste collectors had begun clearing the streets on Saturday after an agreement between unions and local authorities put an end to an eight-day strike over an increase to working hours.

But rain over the weekend made the monumental job even more difficult, and the result was that “rivers of rubbish” flowed through the city’s streets on Monday.

“Rubbish is everywhere. It’s a catastrophe,” biologist Isabelle Poitou, director of the MerTerre association, told AFP. “We’re expecting a strong mistral wind which will push the rubbish, which is currently making its way towards the sea, onto the beaches.”

“It’s vital to come and clear the rubbish from the beaches on Tuesday or Wednesday,” she added. “We need to act before the rubbish gets scattered in the sea at the first gust of wind.”

A woman collects waste on a beach after heavy rains and following a strike of waste collectors in Marseille.

A woman collects waste on a beach after heavy rains and following a strike of waste collectors in Marseille. Photo: Christophe SIMON / AFP.

The video below tweeted by BFMTV journalist Cédric Faiche shows the state of a beach in Marseille early on Tuesday morning. “It’s been cleaned several times but cans and different types of plastic continue to arrive…” Faiche wrote.

However, Faiche told BFM there are similar scenes every time there is heavy rain in Marseille, even if the strike has made the situation even worse.

Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin shared a video of the “sad scene” captured in Marseille on Sunday night. “Discussions between trade unions and the city must not make us forget what really matters: we are all responsible for our seas and our oceans!” she said.

“It’s unacceptable,” Christine Juste, deputy mayor in charge of the environment in Marseille told BFM on Tuesday, criticising the “lack of reactivity” in collecting leftover rubbish following the end of the strike on Friday.

“Why wait so long? In the 6th arrondissement, there has been no collection since the announcement that the strike was over,” she said.

IN PICTURES: See how the deluge has left parts of France’s Mediterranean coast submerged

The Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis intercommunal structure, rather than city hall, is in charge of rubbish collection in Marseille.

On Monday morning, the Metropolis dispatched 650 workers to clear away as much waste as possible ahead of the heaviest rainfall which was forecast for the afternoon.

On Monday evening, Marseille’s Mayor Benoît Payan told franceinfo that 3,000 tonnes of garbage were still yet to be collected in the city. “I asked the Prime Minister this evening to class the zone as a natural disaster,” he added.

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