The worst may have been avoided, this Saturday evening in Villeneuve-la-Garenne.
Four young people were arrested in the evening as they participated in a crowd that was heading towards the neighboring town.
About twenty people, obviously determined to fight it out, met around 8 p.m. at the level of this bridge which leads to the other side of the Seine.
For a long time, a hostility opposes certain young people of the two cities.
The police intervened and succeeded, at first, in arresting three participants in the regrouping.
They had not come empty-handed since it was with iron bars that they were apprehended.
A teenager attacked in October
No one was injured during this turbulent early evening, but according to someone close to the case, a shot was heard.
When calm returned, the police examined the images from the video surveillance system.
They allowed them to find the trail of a man who had slipped through the cracks.
He was arrested shortly before 2 a.m. not far from his home.
He, on the other hand, was carrying a firearm.
A security device must be dispatched to the site in order to avoid new tensions.
As is often the case in such situations, the rivalries between Villeneuve and L'Ile-Saint-Denis groups go back years without any specific cause being identified.
In mid-October, a teenager from Villeneuve had been attacked.
Immediately, the two municipalities and the associations had sounded the general mobilization to renew the dialogue and prevent the escalation at all costs.