By Ben Kerrigan-
The judicial police are investigating an assassination attempt of the Mayor of France according to the public prosecutor’s office.
According to Créteil public prosecutor Stéphane Hardouin, the attackers probably intended “to burn down the house”.
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“Initial findings lead us to believe that the vehicle was launched to burn down the bungalow”, the public prosecutor told reporters. “An accelerant was discovered in a bottle of coke”, added the magistrate, denouncing the events as “extremely serious”.
Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of the southern suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses, said his home was ram raided and set alight while his wife and children were asleep in what he described as an assassination attempt. His wife and one of their two children, aged five and seven, were injured as they fled the building in the early hours.
The official wrote on social media on Sunday: “Last night, a milestone was reached in horror and ignominy. My home was attacked and my family was the victim of an assassination attempt.”
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Regional prosecutor Stephane Hardouin opened an investigation into attempted murder, telling French television that a preliminary investigation suggests the car was meant to ram the house and set it ablaze. He said a flame accelerant was found in a bottle in the car.
French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin confirmed, adding: “The perpetrators will answer for their heinous acts.”
Riots continued to rage for a fifth night in France overnight, as 45,000 police were deployed and 719 people were arrested across the country by early on Sunday.
Emmanuel Macron met his ministers on Sunday evening to review the situation, the presidency said, after the prime minister said on Friday the government’s “crisis unit” had been activated until further notice.
This comes after the French President postponed a state visit to Germany, which was due to have begun on Sunday, to handle the worst crisis for his leadership since the “Yellow Vest” protests paralysed much of France in late 2018.
The funeral of the 17-year-old shot dead occurred in Nahel in Nanterre on Saturday. He was buried in a hilltop ceremony in the Paris suburb, where hundreds of people lined the road to pay tribute as his white casket was carried from a mosque to the burial ground, The Associated Press reported.
Nahel, identified only by his first name, was killed by a single shot from a police officer during a traffic stop Tuesday morning.
The teenager’s grandmother pleaded with rioters Sunday to stop as the nation faced a sixth straight night of unrest. The woman, identified only as Nadia, said in a telephone interview with the French news broadcaster BFM TV: “Don’t break windows, buses … schools. We want to calm things down.”
She said she was angry at the officer who killed her grandson but not at the police in general, and she expressed faith in the justice system as France faces its worst social upheaval in years.
Police made 719 arrests nationwide by early Sunday following a mass security deployment aimed at quelling France’s worst social upheaval in years.
The 17-year-old whose death Tuesday sparked the violence was laid to rest Saturday in a Muslim ceremony in Nanterre, a Paris suburb. He has been identified publicly only by his first name, Nahel.
As night fell Saturday, a small crowd gathered on the Champs-Elysees to protest his death and police violence but met hundreds of officers with batons and shields guarding the avenue and its boutiques. In a less chic Paris neighborhood, protesters set off firecrackers and lit barricades on fire as police shot back with tear gas and stun grenades.
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A burning car hit the home of the mayor of the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses. Several schools, police stations, town halls, and stores have been targeted by fires or vandalism in recent days but such a personal attack on a mayor’s home is unusual.