The mayor of Signes, Jean-Mathieu Michel, died Monday after being overthrown by a van, reports France Bleu Provence.
The elected 76-year-old mayor of the Var since 1983, was on a local road in the vicinity at the time of the incident. After seeing several individuals illegally unloading rubble on a private road, he asked them to stop and recover the rubble on the ground. But while leaving, the vehicle hit Jean-Mathieu Michel.
Two men placed in custody
The driver of the vehicle and his passenger, two young construction workers according to Var-Matin , were placed in custody. According to the regional daily, the president of the agglomeration community asked the mayors of the agglomeration community to put the flags of their municipality at half mast. On Twitter, the mayor of Toulon Hubert Falco hailed a "man of temperament, courage, respected and appreciated by all his fellow citizens", as well as a "great defender of the republican ideal".