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Police vehicle in France (symbolic image)
Photo: Gerard Julien / AFP
The French government calls for calm and prudence after the death of a teenager. The 16-year-old was traveling on a motorcycle in Elancourt, a town about 30 kilometers west of Paris, collided with a police vehicle and suffered fatal injuries.
Two police officers were taken into custody and interrogated by the police supervision, police sources said on Wednesday evening. The public prosecutor's office of Versailles is investigating, therefore, for non-compliance with an order by the young person and negligent homicide by the driver of the police car.
According to information from the newspaper »Le Parisien«, 16-year-old Sefa S. was on an off-road motorcycle. The prosecutor's office said it was investigating police information that the teenager did not stop while riding his motocross bike across the sidewalk and rammed a police vehicle while fleeing at an intersection.
Died in hospital
The teenager was initially resuscitated by rescue workers, but then died of his injuries in hospital, it said. According to Le Parisien, he was chased by a patrol car, but collided with another police car that was on its way back from another operation.
On Thursday night, an additional unit of gendarmes was deployed in the village to avoid unrest. The violent death of 17-year-old Nahel M. At the end of June, in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, days of unrest had been triggered in France. A policeman had shot him while he was behind the wheel of the car.
Government spokesman Olivier Veran said the ongoing investigation would clarify the "exact circumstances" of Wednesday's collision in Elancourt. Of course, I call for calm. I call for restraint and careful consideration," he said on French radio. No matter how dramatic a situation is, it needs answers that we don't have yet."
wit/AFP/Reuters