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Nine arrested for attack on French police station

Nine people have been arrested over a firework attack on a police station near major venues for this summer's Paris Olympics, the French capital's top police official said on Monday.

Published: 18 March 2024 11:19 CET

Nine arrested for attack on French police station

An illustration image of a French police officer, taken in Bordeaux, western France (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)

The Sunday evening attack in the northern suburb of La Courneuve came days after a teenager riding a moped was killed in a car chase with police, echoing a June killing that triggered days-long riots.

“Around 50 people attacked the police station in La Courneuve, mostly with firework mortar shots” late Sunday, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told broadcaster TF1.

Videos posted on social media showed groups of people firing a barrage of fireworks at the building’s facade. Police said the attackers also threw stones and Molotov cocktails.

🔴 Nuit sous haute tension à La Courneuve : le commissariat a été ciblé dimanche soir par des tirs nourris de mortiers d'artifice et de projectiles, quatre jours après la mort d'un jeune de la ville lors d'une course-poursuite à Aubervilliers.
➡️ https://t.co/zGKjOTW5CZ pic.twitter.com/5QevjBHP52

— France Bleu Paris (@francebleuparis) March 18, 2024

Police responded with sting-ball grenades and flash-ball projectiles, used by riot police as an alternative to firearms. The standoff lasted for about 30 minutes, Nunez said.

The police station suffered no damage.

La Courneuve lies in Paris’ northern suburbs, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department that hosts Olympic venues including the flagship Stade de France stadium.

“We can tie this attack to the death” of the 18-year-old killed on Wednesday, named only as Wanys R., Nunez said.

“The young people clearly came from the neighbourhood” where Wanys lived, he added.

Nunz said the arrested suspects included seven adults aged 18-21 and two minors.

Two police officers were “slightly hurt”, he added.

Struck by police car

Nunez said police reinforcements would be deployed in the area around midday on Monday, although further attacks were unlikely.

Wanys R. was being chased by police on Wednesday after refusing to stop for a check.

A video widely shared online showed how his scooter was struck by a police car, killing him and injuring his passenger.

The lawyer representing Wanys’ family on Friday accused the police of hitting him on purpose, while the officers’ own representative insisted it was an accident.

Residents told AFP that they condemned the attack on the police station.

“The Olympics aren’t our concern but this gives us a bad reputation and that’s not good for business,” said a local grocery shop owner.

“It’s sad to lose a child but don’t take it out on the neighbourhood,” said Anissa, another resident.

“It’s stupid to destroy our neighbourhood. We’ll be left with nothing,” she said.

In June, a video of a police officer shooting dead 17-year-old Nahel M. triggered nights of riots in gritty Paris suburbs and other deprived areas.

The policeman who fired the fatal shot has been charged with voluntary homicide.

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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.