LIVE. 719 rioters arrested during fifth restless night in France – Demonstrators set fire to car at mayor’s house: “Assassination attempt” | Instagram VTM NEWS

It has been restless at the southern neighbors for five days. Recently there was also a wave of protest when French President Emmanuel Macron raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. Frederik Dhondt of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel explains in this article why the French are showing their dissatisfaction with street protests.

“From initial findings, we can assume that the vehicle was launched to set fire to the house,” a French prosecutor said on Sunday morning. “An accelerant was found in a bottle of Coke,” he said. The magistrate calls it “extremely serious facts”. An attempted murder investigation is underway.

The mayor of the place L’Hay-les-Roses was not home at the time of the attack. His wife and two children slept there. The partner has been hospitalized after a serious break, says the entourage to the French news channel BFMTV. She picked it up when she fled the house. The 5 and 7-year-old children are not injured, but are in shock.

The unrest in France also spread to neighboring Switzerland in the night from Saturday to Sunday. Seven people were arrested in the city of Lausanne after a group of about 100 youths caused damage to shops.

Six of the people arrested were minors, the other was 24 years old. Police believe they were inspired by the riots in France.

Iran on Sunday called on the French government to “stop the violent treatment” of its people and to show restraint in the crisis that has erupted after a teenager was killed by a police bullet.

“The French government must end the violent treatment of its population while respecting the principles of human dignity, freedom of expression and the right of citizens to demonstrate peacefully,” stressed Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.

The ministry also called on Iranians to avoid “unnecessary travel to France in the context of the current crisis”.

The Iranian media pays a lot of attention to the wave of violence that has erupted in many French cities following the death of the young Nahel.

Iranian authorities sharply criticized the solidarity of European countries with the protest movement that swept through Iran in the fall following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for breaking the very strict dress code imposed on women in Iran and died.

On October 14, Kanani denounced the interference of President Emmanuel Macron, who had expressed his support for the protesters. It is surprising that France condemns the Iranian security forces, who had to deal with “violent people and rioters,” the spokesman said at the time.

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands arrested during the protests in Iran.

During the fifth protest night from Saturday to Sunday, 719 people were arrested. This is according to the French Ministry of the Interior. It is still a provisional balance sheet.

Last night, 45 police officers and gendarmes were injured, 577 vehicles and 47 buildings were set on fire and a total of 871 fires were reported on public roads, the ministry said.

Ten police stations, ten gendarmerie barracks and six local police stations were targeted by rioters.

Marseille and Lyon were the hardest hit by violence, according to a police source. That writes AFP news agency.

The sale of fireworks is temporarily banned in Tournai and Mouscron, two municipalities bordering the north of France.

“There was theft of fireworks at the border, which were then found in the middle of the riots in France,” Mayor Paul-Olivier Delannois explained the ban, which will last until Monday.

“There has also been higher sales in recent days and we do not think that people are preparing for July 14 and 21 (the national holidays of France and Belgium, ed.)”, the mayor of Tournai told RTBF.

It was on the fifth consecutive night of protest in France number of arrests made in the night from Saturday to Sunday around 3.30 am 486. This is evident from a preliminary balance released by the French Ministry of the Interior.

Out of nearly 500 arrests found there 194 place in Paris and surroundings.

There occurred no serious disturbances before, but there were minor incidents noted, among others Marseilles and Lyons and on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, where a large group of demonstrators had gathered on Saturday evening. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested and weapons were also seized.

All in all, it seemed to be quieter everywhere this night than the previous nights. The authorities had also taken their precautions and there were again 45,000 agents on standby to intervene. “Rather a calm night thanks to the resolute actions of our security forces,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin noted via Twitter.

The wife of the mayor of the French town of L’Hay-les-Roses, just south of Paris, was injured when she fled with two young children from demonstrators who set fire to their house. An investigation has been opened for attempted murder. This has been confirmed by the public prosecutor’s office.

Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun writes on Twitter that his family escaped an “attempted assassination”. His wife probably suffered a fracture and had to go to the hospital and one of the two children also suffered minor injuries, according to ‘Le Monde’.

The mayor himself was not present at his home at the time of the attack. Jeanbrun writes that the demonstrators rammed the fence in front of his house and broke through with a car, which was then set on fire.

The newspaper ‘Le Figaro’ reports that Jeanbrun was at the town hall at the time of the attack, which was barricaded. However, a group of people gathered at his residence, which was not secured. The mayor’s wife fled with the children and is said to have been chased. She is said to have been injured when she climbed over the wall to the neighbour’s house.

The prefect of the Val-de-Marne region, which includes L’Hay-les-Roses, said in a statement that it strongly condemned the attack and expressed support “for our elected leaders who are on the front line in the fight against violence”.

Two police officers were injured in Marseille on Saturday evening, reports the French news channel ‘BFMTV’. One of the officers was wounded in the face by mortar fire. According to the broadcaster, he was taken to hospital in a conscious state. 65 people were arrested in Marseille on Saturday evening.

During the fifth consecutive night of protest in France, a total of 322 arrests had already been made in the night from Saturday to Sunday around 1:30 am, including 126 in Paris and the Parisian suburbs. This is evident from a provisional balance sheet released by the French Ministry of the Interior.

There were, among other things incidents signaled on the Champs-Elysees in Parisbut also into Marseilles and in Lyons. All in all, it seemed to be quieter everywhere this night than the previous nights. The authorities had also taken their precautions and again 45,000 officers were ready to intervene.

France has entered its fifth night of protests, although they seem to be a bit quieter than the previous nights for the time being. French media do report incidents and confrontations between demonstrators and the police in almost all major cities.

In Marseilles, France’s second largest city, has a large police force on its feet, but the situation is said to be “under control”. The city had prepared for major riots. Around midnight, about 56 people had already been arrested and the police speak of “an agitated atmosphere”. Demonstrators have set fire to garbage, among other things.

“We don’t see looting like yesterday, but groups of young people have been trying to unite all evening to cause damage”, after which the police tried to disperse them, if necessary with tear gas, a police officer said.

In the shopping street Champs-Élysées Pariswhere many shopkeepers have boarded up their windows as a precaution, the police have arrested 37 people and seized many weapons.

Out Montpellier, in the south of the country, there are reports of looting. And in Nicealso on the Mediterranean Sea, a confrontation is taking place between the police and demonstrators who have set a large fire on a central axis in the city.

Just like during the night from Friday to Saturday, 45,000 police officers are again ready to intervene. A total of 1,311 people were arrested last night, 406 of them in Paris.

Earlier on Saturday, 17-year-old Nahel was buried in Nanterre, France. The death of the boy has sparked unrest in France. Nahel, of Algerian descent, was shot by a police officer during a traffic check on Tuesday.

Another 35 administrative arrests were made in Brussels on Saturday evening following calls on social media to protest the death of a young man in France on Tuesday. This is reported by the police of the Brussels Capital/Ixelles zone.

French President Emmanuel Macron has canceled a planned state visit to Germany. The emergency in his country takes priority. Macron should normally have arrived in Stuttgart on Sunday. Visits to Ludwigsburg, Berlin and Dresden were planned for Monday and Tuesday.