A 33-year-old man, armed and suspected of a feminicide near Saint-Tropez, is wanted by nearly 200 gendarmes in Gréolières, a mountain village in the Alpes-Maritimes.

A call for witnesses has been launched and residents of the so-called Laval district are advised not to leave their homes. 

An armed man suspected of a feminicide near Saint-Tropez then of having shot a gendarme, is wanted Monday by some 200 gendarmes and elite forces in Gréolières, a mountain village in the Alpes-Maritimes where he grew up. A call for witnesses was launched Monday at midday to try to find Marc Floris, 33, from this village of some 600 inhabitants of the Nice hinterland. Anyone seeing this "dangerous" man described by the gendarmerie as "slender, 1.75 meters, brown hair" is called to contact the investigators.

"The gendarmes are deployed in the so-called Laval district, which is six / seven kilometers from the center of the village and where the suspect's house is", an employee of a public works company on the Côte d'Azur, told l 'AFP Marc Malfatto, the mayor of Gréolières. "Residents of the seven houses were advised not to go out" because the man could either still be holed up in the family house or outside in this steep area, he added, adding that the situation is "normal" in the rest of the village.

#Current intervention at # Gréolières


➡️ Avoid the area.


➡️ Do not interfere with the action of the security forces.


⛔La @ Gendarmerie_006 asks the population of Gréolières and its surroundings to stay at home, except in an emergency. # EnquêteJudiciairepic.twitter.com / qfLorNqt1n

- Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes (@ Gendarmerie_006) July 19, 2021

#Call for witness


Intervention at # Gréolières.


If you have any information, contact @ Gendarmerie_006 on 04 93 18 43 41. pic.twitter.com/7pJNiC6spU

- Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes (@ Gendarmerie_006) July 19, 2021

"Dangerous and armed"

"Dangerous and armed", the man is suspected of having killed a 32-year-old woman in the Var with whom "he maintained or had maintained over a short period of time a relationship," said Guy Bouchet, public prosecutor deputy of Draguignan (Var), during a press conference. The 32-year-old young woman was found shot dead on Sunday around 5:30 am in front of the gate of her residence in Plan-de-La-Tour, a town above the Gulf of Saint-Tropez (Var). His body had been seen by a newspaper delivery man from the daily

Var-Matin

.

The use of the recordings of the home's video surveillance system and the analysis of the victim's mobile phone enabled the suspect to be identified, who fled from the Var to the Alpes-Maritimes and his family home in Gréolières, according to the prosecutor.

He was not known to justice, he added.

Sunday evening, Marc Floris shot a gendarme who came to question him, but without injuring him, according to the deputy prosecutor and a source close to the investigation.

Mobilized on the ground, the elite units of the GIGN of Orange (Vaucluse) and Paris crisscross a research perimeter "perfectly delimited and well controlled," said Guy Bouchet.

In the center of the village of Gréolières, "we can move around. We cannot use the landing site for paragliders because there is a gendarmerie helicopter, two military helicopters and gendarme trucks," said an employee. from the paragliding school of this locality, Olivier Martinez. The prefect of the department was to hold a press conference at 6 p.m. at the town hall of Gréolières.