The Grasse prosecutor's office said Thursday that it had requested the dismissal of three people, including the former director of an Orpea retirement home in Biot (Alpes-Maritimes), where three residents had drowned in 2015 after floods.
To discover
Follow all the news of the city of Nice
In its indictment delivered in mid-January, the prosecution calls for a trial for manslaughter and endangering the lives of others "
by manifestly deliberate violation of an obligation of security or prudence
", he specified to the AFP, confirming information from the daily
Nice-Matin
.
Justice requests the dismissal in correctional of the director of the retirement home Le Clos Saint-Grégoire, closed since, of the former mayor of Biot Guilaine Debras and of the person in charge "natural risks" of the town hall.
Read alsoOrpea, a giant struck down by a journalistic investigation
The Orpea group, which managed the establishment, was also the subject of a request for referral to corrections, as a legal person.
An examining magistrate will now decide: he can decide to refer the persons indicted to the criminal court or dismiss the case.
Wave of water and mud
On October 3, 2015, a wave of water and mud swept through a valley and invaded through all the openings the ground floor of the Clos Saint-Grégoire retirement home, at the foot of the medieval village of Biot.
The establishment, close to a rainwater drainage channel and which had already experienced two floods, has since been closed.
Read alsoAlpes-Maritimes: a family saved by firefighters after being poisoned by carbon monoxide
During the flood, around twenty residents had been evacuated from the ground floor by two employees, but three women, aged 82, 91 and 94, had drowned.
The deadly deluge that fell in one evening on the Côte d'Azur had killed 20 people in total.
Not far from the retirement home, a 62-year-old Briton had drowned in a campsite in Antibes, totally devastated by the sudden flooding of the Brague, a coastal river.
The heaviest price had been paid by the town of Mandelieu-la-Napoule, where the emergency services had found the bodies of eight people in the underground car parks of several nearby residences.
The victims had gone to retrieve their vehicle.
