Sunday, March 21, in the afternoon, in the city center, in Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne), families take advantage of a ray of sunshine to do their shopping or take the children out to the park.
When suddenly, around thirty hooded young people, dressed in black and armed with iron bars and knives, rush into the parking lot of the Leclerc store.
Originally from the Saint-Hubert district, in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, they come to fight with their alleged rivals from Fleury-Mérogis.
READ ALSO>
"Young people are no longer afraid of dying": in Essonne, how to thwart brawls between gangs?
On a video that we were able to obtain, we see the group fall on a young lonely between two cars.
He falls to the ground and receives kicks, punches and hammers.
Passers-by manage to put the attackers to flight.
"Who's the injured?"
»Asks a woman filming from her balcony.
"A little from here!"
», Answers a passer-by.
“Come and ring my bell to treat him,” she suggests.
Injured to the head, he was then hospitalized in Longjumeau.
"They climbed on the cars to shoot at each other"
In Fleury-Mérogis, the passage of young people from Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois was a scene of chaos.
While getting on the cars, they smashed dozens of windshields.
Numerous mortar fire erupted around.
And the police used tear gas to disperse the groups.
“They climbed on the cars to shoot each other, testifies a resident.
Moms with strollers and children were running everywhere ... "
Fleury-Mérogis.
The young people of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois came to fight and vandalized cars in their path.
DR
According to a police source, the day before, on Saturday, an 18-year-old boy was injured with a knife in his arm and thigh.
Two hours later, the rival groups met in the Bois des Trous, between the two towns, armed with baseball bats.
Police and gendarmes intervened jointly.
Several arrests
A major gendarmerie device was set up at the end of the day on Sunday, with aerial overflights over the neighborhoods concerned.
Four young people were reportedly arrested in possession of mortars and iron bars.
Contacted, the Departmental Directorate of Public Security of Essonne confirms "slight injuries and some arrests", without further details.
“Everyone is in shock,” summarizes a worried resident of Fleury-Mérogis.
In the midst of a brawl, some were with their children, others had to shut themselves up in the shops.
It happens in the middle of the day, there are people outside.
"Regarding the damage to cars, another resident suggests that" the fighters of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois pay all the costs ".
"There are CRS trucks everywhere between the two towns"
New signals of tension emerged at the start of the week.
A young person was arrested for carrying a weapon in the Saint-Hubert district, in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.
"There are CRS trucks everywhere between the two cities," said a resident again on Wednesday.
Newsletter The essential of 91
A tour of the news of Essonne and Île-de-France
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
"We are still waiting for the reinforcement of 250 staff, insists the departmental secretary of the Alliance 91 union, Claude Carillo.
With the reform of the agglomerations, we no longer have departmental reinforcements.
We must call on the anti-crime brigades ... This destabilizes the workforce in the territories concerned.
"
Fleury-Mérogis.
The police had to use tear gas to disperse the group.
DR
“The gendarmes and police are very mobilized, assures this Wednesday Olivier Corzani, the mayor (PCF) of Fleury-Mérogis.
We talk regularly with the mayor of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.
We must defuse this endless gear to avoid a tragedy.
I condemn these foolish acts that start from nothing.
"
Shocked, neighborhood moms get together
The city councilor goes to a meeting of neighborhood mothers this Wednesday, "shocked" by the incidents of recent days.
This women's committee intends to mobilize to ease tensions.
READ ALSO>
Brawl between gangs in Evry-Courcouronnes: the stab "left alone"
"There is a global policy to articulate: justice must be firm with young adults arrested in possession of weapons, and the municipality can not replace the role of parents, adds Olivier Corzani.
But it's fragile, all it takes is a provocation on social networks for it to collapse.
"
