Banned but nevertheless present in large numbers in certain districts, mortars are being fired more and more frequently against the police and police stations. To the point of becoming commonplace in some cities, such as Sarcelles, in the Val d'Oise. 

"Barrage fire". They target police in full intervention in sensitive neighborhoods, police stations in the suburbs, and even the Paris headquarters of the staff of the 2nd infantry regiment, in the 13th arrondissement, Wednesday. Attacks on fireworks are more and more numerous in France, and in particular at the police station of Sarcelles, in the Val d'Oise, as explained at the microphone of Europe 1, the commissioner Olivier Keith, chief of the local intervention, help and assistance service. 

07/15/2020
Kellermann barracks, headquarters of the staff of the 2nd infantry regiment (Paris 13th).
Mortar fire on the barracks and in the direction of the apartments ... # gendarmerie # gendarmespic.twitter.com / MO7qcEUoK9

- FemmeD'1Flic (@ FemmeD1flic) July 16, 2020

"For the past year, we have been greeted by what is militarily called barrage fire"

"A year or two ago, when we returned from intervention, we were the subject of one or two mortars and it was over. But for a year, we have been greeted by what are militarily called barrage fire. " Attacks that cause "very tense situations, with a great stir both with the populations as well as with the police and firefighters," he recalls. "These mortars are weapons that can seriously injure or burn the police and the firefighters who intervene." 

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A presence on the ground to have "feedback"

This week alone, there have been at least two fires in apartments caused by these over-the-counter rockets on the Internet, and in unscrupulous prohibition stores. So to fight against this scourge which is gaining momentum, the police decided "to be more and more present" on the ground to allow "a feedback of information, in particular from the population of Sarcelles and Garges-lès- Gonesse ", a neighboring town. 

A strategy that seems effective, since the police have already made some good catches, including 7,000 firecrackers and mortars over the counter in a store, despite the ban, on the night of July 13 to 14.