The assault on a cleaning agent by a homeless man turned into a tragedy this Wednesday afternoon in the Rungis market.
The homeless man died, his carotid artery severed by the tip of a pressure washer.
At this hour, the market is sleeping.
The wholesalers are absent, they finish their "night" before attacking a new "day" of work from midnight until the early hours of the morning.
In the afternoon, the MIN is therefore the playground for cleaning agents in these halls where hygiene is experienced as a religion.
Suddenly, a homeless man who is used to hanging out in the vicinity attacks the cleaners in one of the pavilions devoted to fruit and vegetables.
An altercation starts.
The providers then activate their high pressure cleaning lances and give a few knocks on the ground to try to move it away.
But the homeless is coming back.
According to our information, he tried to seize the device of one of the agents.
The latter, in a gesture of defense, turns around to avoid having his device seized.
The author in a state of bewilderment
It is then that the extremely sharp end of the lance cuts through the carotid artery of the SDF.
The man empties his blood on the spot.
The agent will be in a state of astonishment at the consequences of his unfortunate gesture.
CCTV images attest to this, ruling out any desire to harm the homeless.
The victim died shortly after, as the emergency services were unable to resuscitate him.
This is the first time that such a drama has occurred in the history of the Rungis market.
The MIN has already experienced fatal or extremely serious accidents, but most of the time they were collisions with heavy goods vehicles or work accidents (falling pallets, carcasses of meat, etc.).
In July 2020, a 35-year-old woman was fatally mowed down by a truck when she got off the TVM at the MIN.
In November 2018, a pedestrian was struck near a loading dock, seriously injuring him.
