In Bron, in the Lyon metropolis, new clashes broke out on Saturday.
In particular, a police van was damaged and five people were arrested.
On Twitter, the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin denounced "unacceptable violence".
For the third evening in a row in the Lyon metropolis, the police had to intervene to restore order, this time in Bron where a police van was degraded and five people arrested, we learned from corroborating sources.
The facts took place on Saturday around 6 p.m. in the district of Parilly, when individuals set fire to three vehicles and attacked a police van parked while agents were in intervention not far from there, reported the prefecture to AFP.
The area covered by the police
The police were able to arrest five people and quickly control the situation in this municipality bordering east Lyon, she added.
In the middle of the evening, an AFP journalist observed that calm reigned in the district of Parilly, placed under close surveillance.
Until late at night, the police had to cover the area, but also the city of Rillieux-la-Pape and the Lyon district of Duchère where similar violence broke out on Thursday and Friday evening, resulting in around fifteen arrests, the prefecture further clarified.
Four minors arrested on Friday in Rillieux were still in custody on Saturday, and three young people, including an adult, arrested in La Duchère were waiting to be brought to justice, according to the prosecution.
"Once again it is an extreme minority of individuals who are embarrassed because we want to put an end to their petty trafficking and who have decided that retaliation is necessary", blasted the LR mayor of Bron to AFP. Jérémie Bréaud.
Darmanin denounces "unacceptable violence"
In a tweet, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin denounced "unacceptable violence".
"No act of violence can be accepted. Support for the police forces", he wrote again, a few hours after announcing the dispatch of a third mobile force unit in the Lyon area.
That is to say more than 200 police officers and gendarmes in reinforcement "to make respect the republican order", according to the minister.
This evening, 5 arrests in Bron following the unacceptable violence.
21 arrests in total in the Lyon area in recent hours.
No act of violence can be accepted.
Support for police forces.
https://t.co/eohDtf68Wx
- Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) March 6, 2021
The prefecture confirmed to AFP that these reinforcements had arrived in the Lyon metropolis on Saturday afternoon.