No, these military vehicles were not going to Paris because of the coronavirus

• Military vehicles en route to Paris, a few hours before the probable announcement of confinement by Emmanuel Macron?
• A very shared photo on Twitter and Facebook claimed to show such a scene.
• But the army tells us that this transport of vehicles had no connection with the speech announced by the President of the Republic in the evening.

It was one of the most popular photos on social media during Monday: a truck carrying two armored military vehicles a few kilometers from Paris.

"The roads around Paris today!" The horizon seems more and more bleak ”,“ The confinement with military reinforcement is preparing ”,“ What will the president tell us this evening, Mr. Macron? The image speaks for itself ”… Each time, this shot, taken from the dashboard of a car, was accompanied by a different legend. But the basic message remained the same: these vehicles were proof that a military deployment was underway in Paris, in order to ensure the future containment of the population against the coronavirus, which Emmanuel Macron was (inevitably) to announce during his speech scheduled at 8 p.m.

The viral photo of military trucks. - screenshot / Facebook

However, if the President of the Republic did announce the confinement of the country - without saying a word - when he spoke, these convoys had in reality no link with the epidemic responsible, to date, for at least minus 6,633 contaminations and 148 deaths in France.

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If we have not been able to go back to the first occurrence of this photo online - or to his or her photographer -, the Defense Information and Communication Delegation (Dicod) tells us that these "two front armored vehicles belong to the 121st regiment of the Montlhéry train [Essonne] and [were] transported by a civilian transporter, Domazur".

They "returned from a driving course on sand organized in Biscarosse [Landes] for the benefit of the drivers of this regiment, who will be engaged in a few weeks in Mali as part of Operation Barkhane", continues the communication service of the 'army, stating that the staff returned for the last week and that "this transport by civilian truck is in accordance with normal procedures. "

Contacted by our colleagues from AFP Factuel, the company Domazur confirmed to them that it was a trivial return of vehicles to their base in Essonne: “It is a delivery that was planned for a long time. We work with the army and transport their vehicles. "

Live from #Charenton! #CORONAVIRUSENFRANCE #coronapocolypse #Coronamaison # COVID19france #couvrefeu # Coronavid19 #Paris # Covid_19 #confinementtotal #confinement pic.twitter.com/2zc2FppwRM

As for the trucks filmed in the streets of Charenton (Val-de-Marne), whose videos also circulated a lot on social media on Monday, suggesting that their arrival was also in line with future government measures, this was also routine transport: “They belong to a logistical movement unrelated to the coronavirus crisis. The French Army continues to carry out its operational activities linked to the achievement of its priority missions. This includes limited travel. "

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• Containment
• Coronavirus
• Society
• Covid 19
• Paris
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