The questions that arise after the fatal fireworks of Cholet

• Several projectiles struck spectators during the Cholet fireworks display, killing two young people from the same family.

• An investigation has been opened for manslaughter and involuntary injury and focuses in particular on three aspects: technical, regulatory and security.

Two people from the same family lost their lives Thursday evening in Cholet, Maine-et-Loire, while attending the July 14 festivities which turned into a nightmare.

takes stock of this tragedy after an involuntary homicide investigation was opened on Friday.

What is the human toll?

It was nearly 11:10 p.m. when a 7-year-old boy and his 24-year-old sister, who had come to watch the fireworks with their family, died Thursday evening in Cholet, near a football field in the city.

At that time, in still unclear circumstances, several projectiles hit the spectators who were a few tens of meters from the launch pad.

Eventful fireworks at CHOLET start of fire at monk park and several injured pic.twitter.com/1djAcvUpFI

— Jc Branger (@BrangerJc) July 14, 2022

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This incident injured several others, including a family member who was seriously burned, aged around 30, but whose life is no longer in danger.

Six other spectators, including the parents of the two victims, were more lightly affected.

For the many witnesses, shocked, a medico-psychological emergency cell was opened Friday afternoon by the town hall.

What happened ?

An investigation has been opened for manslaughter and involuntary injury.

Entrusted to the Maine-et-Loire departmental security and the Cholet police station, it revealed that a “shooting incident” was at the origin of the tragedy.

Clearly, a technical problem with the pyrotechnic device occurred, causing a "rocket which would have gone horizontally" before exploding, according to the mayor of Cholet, Gilles Bourdouleix, interviewed by

.

"One of the firing blocks, failing, experienced an explosion causing fireworks to depart towards part of the public", explains

In any case, several witnesses report on a daily basis that they found that the shots were too low and too close from the start.

Other people, among the tens or hundreds who were on the scene, say they then felt heat, the blast of an explosion, or even received shrapnel, before a crowd movement occurred.

Impressive amateur videos show that the incident also immediately produced several outbreaks of fire on the expanse of dry grass where the public was.

Without the show, which lasted about fifteen minutes, being interrupted.

Were there any security lapses?

The investigations focus on three aspects: technical, regulatory and security.

Were the victims in an authorized area?

Were they too close to the machines?

What we do know is that they were in Parc de Moine, either 30 or 50 meters from the shooting range just behind the fences around the stadium, opposite the majority of the spectators, positioned well further away.

"The public was not necessarily authorized to be in this area, it was not planned by the fireworks that the public could be there when the shot went off", indicated this Friday morning the public prosecutor , Eric Bouillard.

A hypothesis that the mayor of Cholet does not support, who indicated that the show had been fired "for years" by the same fireworker (the Breton company HTP, which stages more than 350 fires per year according to its website), without any incident having ever occurred.

"No one questioned the security conditions at the time," said Gilles Bourdouleix to franceinfo.

Hearings from six of the pyrotechnicians and organizers, the company Cholet Evenements, took place this Friday morning to try to understand the responsibilities of each.

If no police custody has yet taken place, the reactions are multiplying.

The town hall of Trélazé, a town in Maine-et-Loire located about sixty kilometers from Cholet, has taken the decision to cancel the fireworks this Friday evening, "in solidarity with the families affected by the tragedy".

A child and his sister killed by fireworks in Cholet

Eight people slightly injured during a fireworks display in Sarthe

• Company

• Cholet

• Pays de la Loire

• Fireworks

• Investigation

• Manslaughter