Europe1 .fr with AFP//Photo credits: JEAN-FRANCOIS FORT / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 19:56 p.m., December 25, 2023

A warehouse belonging to the Secours populaire was burgled on Saturday in Echirolles (Isère), causing damage to the association estimated at some 300,000 euros. To recover from the situation, the Secours populaire de l'Isère has launched both "an appeal for witnesses" to help with the police investigation but also "an appeal for solidarity" with "individuals, companies, institutions, communities".

"At a time when the families supported are most in need of help, the association has been hit right in the middle of its collection and redistribution system," the Isère branch of the association said in a statement, adding that it had been alerted by the police to the "misdeed". "Our pallets of donations for the families supported by our association have been looted. Everything was ransacked," the secretary general of the Secours Populaire Français, Nabil Chetouf, said in the document.

"Who can do this as the end-of-year festivities begin?" adds the manager, hoping that "the collection and redistribution capacities" of the association "will not be too impacted".

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"The head of the Secours Populaire who went to the scene estimated the damage at 300,000 euros," the Grenoble prosecutor's office said in a statement. "Two new vans" belonging to the association were also "damaged", according to the same source.

A call for solidarity

To recover from the situation as soon as possible, the Secours populaire de l'Isère has launched both "an appeal for witnesses" to help with the police investigation but also "an appeal for solidarity" with "individuals, companies, institutions, communities".

The association was keen to "reassure the families accompanied" by keeping its "spaces of solidarity" open despite this situation.