An investigation was opened in Grenoble after a arson attack which destroyed the premises of a research laboratory located on campus overnight, according to the Grenoble prosecutor's office. The fire, which did not make a victim, declared between 3h and 4h on the first floor of this laboratory piloted by the Grenoble-Alpes University, the CNRS and the Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble. The fire then spread to the roof of the building, also housing classrooms, machines and computer equipment. Some 700 m2 of premises burned down according to the firefighters.
"Several outbreaks of fire noted"
"The fire is a priori of criminal origin since a door seems to have been broken and that several starts of fire were observed," said Sunday the prosecutor Eric Vaillant. The forensic science was still at work on Sunday noon. About sixty firefighters were mobilized to extinguish the flames.
"No claim has yet been brought to our attention," added the magistrate, who entrusted the investigation to the Grenoble branch of the judicial police and to the departmental security of Isère.
The national counter-terrorism prosecution informed
Eric Vaillant also announced that he had informed the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) of these investigations to "allow him to seize the facts if he considers it necessary". In mid-January, the PNAT had not taken up the investigation into the fire at a depot for Enedis vehicles in the Grenoble suburbs, claimed by the anarcho-libertarian movement. Eric Vaillant had then explained to the press that he hoped an anti-terrorist referral in the face of the reiteration of similar facts in the region for three years.