Europe 1 with AFP 18:14 p.m., January 15, 2024

The home of a deputy mayor of Viroflay (Yvelines) was damaged on Sunday night by graffiti, some of them glorifying Nazism, and his son was severely beaten, AFP learned Monday from a police source.

Two people were in police custody on Monday afternoon for "violence with a weapon in a meeting, damage in a group and contempt", the Versailles prosecutor's office said. One of the two people in custody "is a minor, the other is an adult," the source said.

On Sunday evening, according to the police source, the son of a deputy mayor of this small town located a few kilometers east of Versailles saw two people spray-painting a Celtic cross, swastikas and two inscriptions targeting the police and the anti-fascist movement on a wall of the home where he lives with his parents.

Beaten and gassed by the two perpetrators of the tags

While resisting the damage, the man was beaten and gassed by the two perpetrators of the tags, who then fled, the source continued. The adult assailant currently in police custody is on the S file for belonging to the ultra-right movement, the police source said, information that the Versailles prosecutor's office has not confirmed at this stage.

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On BFMTV, the deputy security officer whose wall was tagged, Louis Le Pivain, described the tags as "irrelevant" and said they had "no connection" with his status as an elected official. "At that age, it's desperate," he added, referring to the defendants' youth.

Other tags spotted in Versailles

According to the TV station, a wall not far from Le Pivain's home was also covered with similar tags. Questioned about the profile of the defendants and the precise circumstances of the damage, the Versailles prosecutor's office said early Monday afternoon that it "could not say more" at this stage.

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Earlier on Sunday, Nazi and anti-Semitic graffiti had also been found in Versailles on a fence belonging to the town hall, the same police source said the same day, without the discovery leading to any arrests.