French university closes building over drug dealing

A university site in the centre of French Mediterranean port Marseille will close temporarily because of nearby dealing in the city's deadly drug trade, according to a letter seen by AFP.

Published: 4 October 2023 11:04 CEST

French university closes building over drug dealing

Aix-Marseille University will be temporarily close one of its sites in central Marseille due to insecurity linked to drug trafficking nearby (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)

The Colbert building affected is less than 500 metres from Marseille’s picturesque Old Port in one of the city’s poorer neighbourhoods, where drug-dealing hotspots have recently popped up.

“After months of concern and alarm, the dean… has taken the decision to close the building to students and staff as their security cannot be assured,” Eric Berton, president of the Aix-Marseille University, wrote to police, prosecutors and the mayor.

Around 40 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Marseille this year — described as a “bloodbath” by city authorities – including bystanders and local residents caught up in attacks on rival dealers.

Classes for the Colbert site’s roughly 1,500 students will take place online from Friday until October 13, Berton said, with a university source telling AFP the institution hopes the problems can be resolved by then.

The university “has a real desire to stay in the heart of Marseille” rather than fleeing its social issues, the source added.

Marseille’s police headquarters on Tuesday acknowledged the “degradation” around the Colbert site, but added it had been sending riot police to reinforce local officers.

It also invited university chief Berton to visit “soon” to discuss the dealing problems.

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The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.