Police sirens have replaced birdsong.
In Rambouillet, this Friday afternoon, shortly after 2:30 p.m., a policewoman was the victim of barbarism, attacked with a knife and fatally wounded in the throat at the police station.
The attacker was neutralized on the spot, where he died.
In this town in the south of Yvelines known to be "very quiet", the inhabitants are in shock.
Surrounded by forest, the town of 27,000 inhabitants is not used to being in the spotlight.
The Yvelines prosecution was initially responsible for the investigations, before the national anti-terrorism prosecution was seized.
This transfer therefore suggests that the investigators have elements allowing them to consider the trail of the terrorist act.
Around the police station on rue Pasteur, it's the excitement.
In this usually quiet suburban street, a few people, gathered behind the police cars, came "to see".
"We heard the sirens, we turned on the TV and we understood"
Leaning against the barriers, Christian and Maryse try to understand if not to see something.
Eyes in the void, those who have lived in the town for thirty-three years do not know exactly why they are there, but wanted to move.
Shocked, they explain that Rambouillet is a place "all that there is more peaceful.
Here, we've never experienced a drama like this.
"
“We live right next door, in front of the hospital, so when we heard the sirens, we immediately turned on the TV and we understood.
"The shock, the sadness, the incomprehension ..." We feel all these mixed feelings at the same time.
"
Since the assassination of Samuel Paty in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, "we know that this type of atrocities can happen anywhere, including in a small town, but all the same, it's a big shock," says Christian.
They also wanted to travel to the vicinity of the police station to try to understand.
Nathaël and Aloïs were enjoying the sun in the castle park when they learned that a police officer had been murdered.
“It was my mother who warned me,” explains Aloïs.
She wanted to know where I was.
The two friends then decide to walk a kilometer further to get there.
"Why did this man come here?"
"
“We've never seen so many people.
Usually, absolutely nothing happens here, it's really surprising, ”say the teenagers.
Nathaël, him, passed in front of the police station an hour before the tragedy: “It is strange, why this man came here?
There is nothing special about Rambouillet.
"
They were already in the neighborhood at the beginning of the afternoon.
Hélène, Catherine and Paule, three sisters who have lived in the city “forever”, had come to visit their mother in an nursing home located next door.
“At first, when I heard the sirens, says Hélène, I thought it was because of a car accident.
"
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But quickly, "we said to ourselves that there was too much noise for a simple accident, and we thought of an attack," adds Paule.
Even though none of them knew the victim, "we have goosebumps that we attack our police, this poor woman had done nothing wrong."
Still in shock, they do not want to stay in the neighborhood: “Everything is complete, we cannot move around, we might as well go home. If a tribute is organized, Hélène, Catherine and Paule, intend to participate. “Unfortunately, that's not what will bring her back. "
