Le Figaro Nantes
In the aftermath of a May Day demonstration marred by violence in the streets of Nantes, condemned by local elected officials, the human toll of the clashes between some demonstrators and the police still suffers from some uncertainty.
Le Figaro
still managed to collect information on the subject.
On the side of the participants in the procession, the “street medics” (street rescuers) counted
“66 interventions requiring care”
.
The prefecture has identified four people transported to the Nantes University Hospital.
Among them, there is a man seriously injured in the hand.
The scene took place near the prefecture, where the violence reached its climax.
At first, it was relayed by several testimonies that he had had his hand torn off.
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“Serious injury” to the hand
Images of the scene circulating on social networks indeed show an impressive injury.
On this subject, the public prosecutor, Renaud Gaudeul, issued some information on Monday at the end of the day.
He spoke of a
"serious injury but without the notion of a torn hand"
.
He specified that the victim was a 28-year-old man from Rennes.
"The circumstances of the injury are at this stage unknown
," he said.
This Tuesday evening, he mentions having
“received no information as to the state of health”
of the victim and not having additional elements as to the
“exact place where this person was injured”
.
According to him,
"no complaint"
has been filed.
"It is under these conditions that I made the decision this afternoon [Tuesday] to entrust the departmental security of Loire-Atlantique with a mission to search for the causes of this injury"
.
For this, he says he relies on the sixth paragraph of article 74 of the code of criminal procedure.
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“I felt his blood pour over me”
Asked by
Le Figaro
, a "street medic" who intervened quickly on the scene spoke of her vision of the facts on Twitter.
She clarifies that her memories are
“fuzzy”
due to her state of shock.
“I run as fast as possible with my buddy.
The guy (sic) is picked up to be evacuated by my buddy and another protester.
But I see the guy (sic) no longer succeeding in carrying it, ready to put it in the middle.
I take over.
That's when I understood because I felt his blood pouring over me, out of impulse.
I looked down feeling the hot liquid running down my legs
,” she says.
"It wasn't until later, when I came to my senses, that I learned about his hand, and realized that when I was moving him, I was holding his mutilated arm, and what remained of my hand which was bleeding profusely on me”
, she adds to describe this event which will have
“the most traumatized during a demonstration”
and in the face of which she says she felt a
“feeling of helplessness”
.
According to her account,
"cops (sic) gassed while firefighters evacuated the injured"
, which to her is
"delirium"
.
With
Presse Océan
, another "street medic" evokes the hypothesis of a
"grenade of disencirclement"
which would have rebounded
"before touching him
[the demonstrator, Editor's note]
in the right hand while he was standing"
.
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eye injury
At the start of the Nantes demonstration, around 12:15 p.m., a 17-year-old girl was also injured while she was in the middle of the tram tracks near the media library station.
Transported to the University Hospital of Nantes, she was hit in the eye as was able to see a journalist from
Ouest-France
present nearby at the time of the events.
According to the father of the victim, who arrested the prefecture and launched an appeal for witnesses on social networks, she was hit by a
“grenade shard”
.
On Twitter, the journalist evokes him, a
"throw of a firecracker in the middle of the procession from a demonstrator"
.
This information would have been
“confirmed by several people”
.
He relates in particular that a person
"from the block"
who was
"angry"
would have launched into the megaphone:
"Bravo to the one who did this
: even the police can't do it."
Projectile in the neck
On the side of the police, the prefecture identified 24 injured Monday at the end of the day.
There are no
"serious injuries"
, indicates the Departmental Directorate of Public Security (DDSP) on Tuesday afternoon.
One of them still suffered from a
“pesky foot injury”
without anyone knowing what it was all about.
A soldier from the gendarmerie, belonging to the squadron of Châtellerault (Vienne), was transported to the Nantes University Hospital after being hit by
“a projectile at the level of the neck”
, we learned.
The severity of his injury and the duration of his total incapacity for work (ITT) are not known at this time.
Thirty police custody
According to the public prosecutor of Nantes, Renaud Gaudeul,
"30 police custody were taken"
, at the end of the demonstration on Monday.
"Several of them have been extended
," he says.
As for the possible lawsuits, they should be known this Wednesday.
A second soldier was hit
"by a molotov cocktail"
, confirms a source.
"He caught fire in the lower limbs
," he said.
His condition is much less serious than that of the police officer with second-degree burns in Paris: taken care of by the firefighters, he was not taken to the CHU.
His injuries are described as
"superficial"
.
Again, his duration of ITT is not known.
According to information from
Presse Océan
, the security forces used 730 tear gas canisters, nearly 50 disencirclement grenades and used the defense bullet launcher 50 times during the demonstration on Monday.
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“New step taken” in violence
This Tuesday evening, five local branches of trade unions, thirteen political organizations and three associations published a joint press release to denounce
"a new step taken in the spiral of violence"
in Nantes during the May Day parade.
In their words, the
“exceptional police system has once again endangered the demonstrators and demonstrators”.
In their text, they recall that in Nantes
“
a man had his testicle amputated after an LBD shot
”
and that the police were
“accused of carrying out
genital excavations on female students
”
.
In both cases, an investigation was entrusted to the IGPN.
Signatories of the press release
Unions:
UL CGT Nantes, UD CGT 44, FSU 44, Solidaires 44, the Pirate Union of Nantes.
Political organisations:
EELV 44, Ensemble, GDS 44, Générations.S, LFI 44, Jeunes Insoumi-es Nantes, NEC, Nouvelle Donne, PCF 44, PS44, Place Publique, POI44 and the UDB.
Associations:
AVEC Nantes, Extinction Rébellion Nantes, Maison du peuple Nantes.
"The Republican police are mandated to ensure the safety and smooth running of public demonstrations, not to serve as a repressive tool in the service of an unpopular government"
, it is written.
The signatories of the press release underline
"urgently demand a complete revision of the law enforcement plan"
and call for the
"urgent creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the practices of maintaining order in the demonstrations »
.
