Bus shelters ransacked, garbage cans set on fire ... Scuffles broke out Sunday evening in Argenteuil, in the Val-d'Oise, in the neighborhood of an 18-year-old young man, died Sunday morning after a motorcycle accident, near a police car. Deployed in large numbers, the police used tear gas to disperse small groups of inhabitants and by midnight calm had returned.

Earlier in the day, the Pontoise prosecution had opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the accident that took place on the night of Saturday to Sunday: the young driver of the motorcycle lost control of his machine and struck a electric pole in a suburban district of the city. He died of his injuries on Sunday morning at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.

At the time of the accident, a team from the anti-crime brigade (BAC) was circulating in this same suburban district and "passed" the young man on his motorcycle, said a police source, who however assures that there is had no attempt at control or arrest. "The police did not have a beacon or a police sun visor and did not intend to control it, but perhaps the young man identified them and panicked," said the source.

A version denied by residents met by AFP, who all accused the police of being responsible for the accident. A witness who only identified himself by his first name, Abou, said that "the bumper of the police car was hit. We scared him, that's why he got in on the sidewalk, he was blocked, "said the young man, who said he was lower down the street at the time of the accident.

With AFP

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