During a violent altercation between several people on the evening of Wednesday, January 17, a 14-year-old teenager was stabbed to death on the metro platform in Saint-Denis, we learned from the Bobigny prosecutor’s office and police sources. The events took place early in the evening at the Basilique-de-Saint-Denis station, on line 13 of the Paris metro, according to the same sources.
The young man, seriously injured, died despite cardiac massage carried out by firefighters. At this stage of the investigation, there have been no arrests, said a police source.
“There has been great tension in the city since Friday, where we have seen numerous brawls between neighborhoods,” the mayor of Saint-Denis, Mathieu Hanotin (Socialist Party), told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Wednesday morning, “several people came to beat up a young person next to a high school with various blunt tools,” said Mr. Hanotin who “expressed [his] condolences to the mother in this terrible moment.” “The vicious circle of violence must end,” he added.
Violent inter-neighborhood rivalries, “a cyclical phenomenon”
Around 8 p.m., firefighters were trying to resuscitate the victim in the metro station, which was briefly closed, noted an AFP journalist. A large police force was deployed around the station. “Dying at 14 is already a tragedy in itself, dying during a brawl which often degenerates from minor reasons adds to the drama,” wrote Seine-Saint-Denis MP Eric Coquerel (La France insoumise) on X .
“We must continue this prevention work, particularly with specialized associations. This is a major subject that must not be overlooked from which our working-class cities are suffering,” continued the elected official. According to the sociologist Marwan Mohammed, who devoted a book to it, violent inter-district rivalries, “a cyclical phenomenon”, have caused at least “one hundred and twenty deaths” in France over the last thirty years.
