The EELV mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, expressed, this Saturday, July 1, his wish to see police reinforcements sent immediately to the Rhône-Alpes metropolis. This request follows “unprecedented” riots with extensive looting, in the face of sometimes “overwhelmed” and “insufficient numbers” police forces.
The city “was plagued by riots with unprecedented intensity, degradation and violence”, he said during a press briefing at the town hall after a crisis meeting. During the night, dozens of “very mobile” young people traveling on foot, by bicycle or on scooters crisscrossed the streets, with “about forty shops attacked, vandalized, looted, about twenty vehicles burned” and damage to all the boroughs, according to the report communicated by the elected official.
The latest report from the prefecture reports 35 wounded in the ranks of the police, with in particular four police officers targeted by fire in Vaulx-en-Velin, a working-class town on the outskirts of Lyon known for its outbreaks of violence in 2005. “We need more reinforcements, more national police to be able to provide security in the city of Lyon,” he said. “Last evening, it was observed that the police were insufficient in number to be able to deal with all the excesses”, with at times “certain brigades in difficulty” facing “extremely mobile rioters”, added the edile, while saluting the “coolness” of the police.
Shows and concerts scheduled for Saturday evening as part of an annual summer festival were canceled after 8 p.m., “in view of the events”. In addition to the suspensions of buses and trams already planned from 8 p.m., the municipality asked operators “to withdraw the self-service scooters in the city center and in certain districts” so that they are not used ” as weapons by destination to break windows,” Doucet said.
The mayor also decided to bring together the representatives of local political groups in the afternoon to “collectively send a message of appeasement to all Lyonnaises and Lyonnais”.
