A thousand people marched this Tuesday in Montpellier, white roses in hand, to pay a last tribute to a teenager fatally mowed down by a driver during the celebrations of the semi-final of the World Cup between France and Morocco.

After a prayer at the great Averroès mosque, near the Paillade district where the 13-and-a-half-year-old young man lived and where he was hit on December 14 by a driver who then fled, hundreds of people came. gathered in the early afternoon in the parking lot of a theater on the outskirts of the city.

At first sparse, the crowd quickly swelled to reach 1,000 people, according to the Hérault prefecture, when the procession headed silently towards the Grammont cemetery, about 700 meters away.

“Justice for Aymen”

The mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, took his place in the second row, behind relatives of the teenager carrying a banner stamped with the words “Justice for Aymen”, between his photo and a dove of peace.

Some participants, both men and women, brandished a rose, others raised their fists in a sign of determination.

Nearly a week after the events, the driver of the vehicle, who fled after hitting the young Aymen in circumstances that remain to be clarified, is still actively sought.

The teenager died shortly after his medical treatment.

The driver identified

In front of the funeral center, his older brother once again called for "appeasement", "prayer" and "recollection".

“It takes a lot of patience,” he added, before the young man's coffin, covered with a green funeral sheet, was buried in the Muslim square of the cemetery.

“It happened with a lot of respect.

It's nice to see that gypsies have come to say they don't agree with what happened,” Hassan Khaldoune, an acquaintance of Aymen's father, told AFP after the ceremony.

The driver, who has been identified, is a member of the community of travelers, present for decades in Montpellier.

The day after the death of the teenager, scuffles took place in two underprivileged districts of Montpellier.

Several garbage cans and a car were set on fire and an apartment was ransacked.

Miscellaneous facts

Montpellier: The driver who killed an "identified" teenager, according to the prefect

Miscellaneous facts

Montpellier: Violence and punitive expedition after the death of Aymen at La Paillade

  • Miscellaneous facts

  • Montpellier

  • Occitania

  • Languedoc Roussillon