Dozens of participants in the May Day parade briefly burst Wednesday in the Paris Hospital Pitié-Salpêtrière, and some even tried to enter a reanimation service before being dislodged by the police, denounced the direction of the establishment.
Some of the intruders had "violent and threatening actions", told France Inter the director of the hospital Marie-Anne Ruder, who was present on the spot during the incident. The staff is "deeply shocked that the hospital could become a target," she added.
A complaint will be filed
The Director General of the Public Assistance - Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP), Martin Hirsch, expressed his "full support" to the teams of the hospital, "which prevented the endangerment of patients" by " a band of protesters / breakers ". A complaint will be filed, he announced.
Full support for the @HopPitieSalpe teams who faced a gang of protesters / thugs in an attempt to violently intrude into the surgical resuscitation department! And that prevented the endangerment of patients. Thanks to the police. @APHP complaint will be filed.
- Martin Hirsch (@MartinHirsch) May 1, 2019The intruders "rushed to the surgical department" and tried to get in "while the medical staff, the nurses, the interns (...) who were holding the door with all the force could have shouted 'be careful, here there are patients', "Martin Hirsch told BFM-TV.
IN IMAGES - A 1st-May marked by clashes in Paris, quieter in regions
CRS wounded in the head during the clashes in Paris hospitalized in this hospital
According to Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who visited the site in the late afternoon, the hospital was "attacked" by dozens of ultra-leftist black block anti-capitalist activists. Thirty people were arrested, a police officer told the minister during his visit.
The Pitié-Salpêtrière is located near the Place d'Italie, where the route of the trade union demonstration ended in a cloud of tear gas and after clashes. A CRS, wounded in the head during the clashes of the afternoon, had just been admitted to this establishment. However, Martin Hirsch could not say if these two elements were related, or if the intruders "were fleeing something". "I do not know the motivation for this inexplicable intrusion, I do not think there is a connection," he said. "We will be giving the police videos that make it easy to see and absolutely inspiring, and I did not see them screaming for a particular wounded person," he added.
Agnès Buzyn will visit on Thursday
Marie-Anne Ruder told France Inter that the intruders had forced the entrance gate of the establishment. When she arrived there, "dozens of people were entering the hospital compound." Among the intruders, there were people in "yellow vests", demonstrators in civilian clothes, and people with entirely masked faces, according to his story.
Health Minister Agnès Buzyn has announced that she will visit the site Thursday to show her support for the staff. "We would not like to believe it, we would like to say that violence can not target everything, and picking on a hospital is unspeakable," she commented on Twitter.