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CRIME

Thousands march for murdered French jogger

Shocked locals in eastern France joined the family and distraught friends of a murdered jogger for a silent march on Sunday that saw up to 10,000 people take to the streets of the town of Gray.

Published: 5 November 2017 17:39 CET
Thousands march for murdered French jogger
The relatives of Alexia Daval take part in a silent march gathering nearly 1000 people in Gray on Sunday. PHOTO: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
Alexia Daval, a 29-year-old bank worker, disappeared last weekend after heading out for a run from her home in the rural Haute-Saone area to the northeast of France's Burgundy wine-growing area.
 
Her badly burned body was found in a nearby wood on Monday and an autopsy has determined she was strangled to death, but police have not yet made any arrests and the identity of her attacker remains unknown.
 
The seemingly random nature of the murder in a quiet town of around 5,000 people has led to national attention, with hundreds of joggers paying homage to her on Saturday by running in cities across France.
 
“With these sporting gestures, you are making Alexia into a strong symbol, one of the freedom for all women to enjoy running and to live,” her mother Isabelle Fouillot said through tears as she addressed the rally on Sunday.
 
Many of the 8,000 to 10,000 people who joined the march and listened to speeches from Daval's devastated husband and family brought white roses which were placed in front of her parents' tobacco shop in the town.

CRIME

French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

French police were searching for gunmen after three people were killed in drug-related shootings in the Paris suburb of Sevran over the weekend.

Published: 6 May 2024 16:13 CEST
French police search for gunmen after shootings in Paris suburb

Two men were shot dead near a cultural centre in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb, to the northeast of the French capital on Sunday evening, less than 48 hours after another fatal shooting nearby, according to authorities.

The victims of Sunday’s shooting were aged 35 and 31 and known for violence and drug trafficking, according to police sources.

One was shot in the head, with two suspects fleeing on foot, leaving the magazine of an automatic weapon and 18 spent bullet casings behind them.

The second man was hit six times.

The town of 52,000 people was on edge, mayor Stephane Blanchet told AFP, saying people were living in fear of another shooting.

“There is a huge feeling of fear, that it could start again and [that someone could be hit by] a stray bullet,” Blanchet said.

“If it had been a beautiful sunny day, there would have been more people outside,” when the latest shooting happened, he said.

In the first shooting, a 28-year-old man was killed on a nearby housing estate early on Saturday, with three others wounded.

In March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced an ‘XXL’ cleanup of drug trafficking in the southern port city of Marseille and other towns across France, including Sevran, where the drugs trade has been blamed for a spate of death and violence.

One drug dealing hotspot in Sevran was ‘eradicated’ in that operation, police said.

“We are aware that when we do that, we destabilise traffic, we create greed and sometimes there are clashes,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Sunday.

“But we will still continue,” he added.

Local La France insoumise MP Clementine Autain accused the government of abandoning some areas, and said the suburb, “did not have the police presence of other areas”.

Drug-related violence has often flared in Sevran – considered a hub of drug trafficking in France – with the then-mayor calling for UN peacekeepers to be deployed there in 2011.

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