Three people were slightly injured on Saturday evening, November 11, in Old Lyon, when ultra-right activists attempted to force their way into a premises where a conference on Palestine was being held, according to the Bouches-du prefecture -Rhône and witnesses.

A person was arrested in the ranks of the ultra-right, said the prefecture, “firmly condemning the violence committed”.

Several dozen people dressed in black and with partially masked faces targeted the premises at the start of the evening where the conference organized by the Palestine 69 Collective was taking place, according to several witnesses interviewed by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Around 8 p.m., CRS vehicles, fire trucks and numerous police officers were around the targeted premises.

Christophe Oberlin, a surgeon who regularly goes to Gaza to operate on victims of war wounds and who came to present his latest two books, told AFP that people were “banging with sticks” to break down the door of the room in which the conference was held, without being able to enter it. According to several participants, the 120-seat room was “full.” Children and elderly people were in the audience, they point out, adding that a window was broken.

“We found ourselves in a mousetrap.”

Jérôme Faÿnel, president of Collectif Palestine 69, organizer of the event, said he wanted to file a complaint. “It’s the far right. They attacked with mortars, I hold one in my hand,” he said, reached by telephone, also speaking of iron bars and glass bottles.

The environmentalist mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, also announced that he wanted to “take legal action”. “The Maison des passages was once again the target of a far-right group. These attacks organized by small ultraviolent groups are unacceptable. I want to express my support for the victims,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“We found ourselves in a mousetrap. We put a lot of things to barricade the door,” said a participant also contacted by AFP.

While witnesses complained about the delays in intervention by the police, the prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Fabienne Buccio, assured that “the national police had quickly intervened”. The call to 17 was made at 7:15 p.m. and the first crews arrived at 7:28 p.m., according to his services. “Given the facts described, it was necessary for the crews to come together to intervene,” they said.

Around 1,200 people marched in the afternoon in Lyon against the far right at the call of a collective supported in particular by La France insoumise (LFI) and anti-fascist movements. The demonstrators marched peacefully behind banners saying “No to the extreme right, its ideas, its violence”, but also signs in support of Palestine, chanting “Justice for Gaza”.

The deputy (LFI) for Seine-Sant-Denis Thomas Portes took part in the procession. In the evening, he asked the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, on