Urban violence erupted on Saturday night in Chanteloup-les-Vignes (Yvelines) where police were targeted and a marquee burned circus, acts described as "cowards and imbeciles" by the Minister of the Interior. This city of large Paris suburbs is "the prey of various assaults and varied for several days," lamented Mayor Catherine Arenou (LR), referring to the public street lighting cuts caused for a month by some young people in the sensitive neighborhood of Noah.
The clashes began Saturday at 19:00 "with jets of molotov cocktails," according to a police source. The police then wiped projectiles or mortar fire until 23:00. The police were attacked by "about thirty young people" at the height of the events, always according to the same source.
This large wooden structure cost 800,000 euros
The fire broke out around 22:30 and "calmed everyone down," according to the police, which has two minor injuries in its ranks. Two people were also arrested. For Catherine Arenou, it is an act is "deliberate" since "it was found two fire starts on two sides" of the building. The images of the fire were widely relayed by the inhabitants on the social networks. This large wooden structure that cost 800,000 euros, belonged to the Compagnie des contraires, a circus association established for nearly 30 years in Chanteloup.
This surge of violence is linked to rehabilitation work in the neighborhood that "disturbs the underground economy," said a police source. Information confirmed by Catherine Arenou that specifies that a building bar must be demolished as part of the urban renewal program. In April 2018, a nursery school burned in the Noah district. An event that the mayor had put forward to sound the alarm on the fate of the suburbs, a few days before the delivery of a report by Jean-Louis Borloo supposed to provide solutions for sensitive neighborhoods.