A “
consequent
”
security device
will be deployed during the night of New Year's Eve in Strasbourg, marked regularly by urban violence targeting the police and firefighters, prefect Josiane Chevalier told AFP on Wednesday.
Six units of mobile forces (UFM), or 360 officials, will be mobilized, as well as nearly 400 police officers and a "
hundred
" soldiers of Operation Sentinel, detailed the prefect of Bas-Rhin.
Across the department, 630 firefighters as well as 450 gendarmes will also be on the ground, for a total of 1,950 police, firefighters and soldiers, she continued.
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"
It is a consequent device and adapted to the strategy put in place
" after the "
attacks
"Of which the firefighters were victims in particular on the night of December 31, 2019, New Year's Eve 2020 having been much calmer due to the curfew established for health reasons, explained Josiane Chevalier.
The police will protect the firefighters during their interventions, she added, while the night of New Year's Eve is traditionally marked in Strasbourg by a large number of burnt vehicles.
Like last year, in order to limit the presence of cars in the streets, certain sectors will be prohibited from parking and guarded and secure parking lots will be made available to motorists in the Eurometropolis which brings together Strasbourg and around thirty neighboring municipalities.
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Donors were also asked not to leave full containers outside in order to avoid garbage fires. Four prefectural decrees taken recently complete this security system, recalled Josiane Chevalier, one of which instituted on New Year's Eve in Strasbourg and in six neighboring municipalities a curfew for minors under the age of 16 unaccompanied by a parent. These minors have often been implicated during episodes of violence and urban degradation that have occurred in the city on New Year's Eve since 1997, the prefecture indicated in a press release in mid-December. Another decree also prohibits the sale and use of firecrackers and fireworks in the Bas-Rhin,very popular in Alsace and in neighboring Germany during New Year's Eve where they nevertheless cause numerous injuries or mutilations.
Last year, a young man died, his head blown off by a mortar.
"
1400 kilos of mortars and fireworks
" have already been seized by the police, said Josiane Chevalier.