A photojournalist for the regional daily L'Union was seriously injured on Saturday in Reims, while covering groups of young people in the priority Red Cross district.
An investigation is opened for attempted murder, confirm this Sunday the prefecture, the prosecution and the newspaper.
What happened ?
It was around 3.30pm when a journalist from the Reims editorial staff of L'Union discovered her colleague photographer, Christian Lantenois, 65, "on the ground" in the Croix-Rouge district.
The man, "the bloody head", "was bleeding at the level of the ears", reports the prefect of Marne, Pierre N'Gahane.
He had just joined her on the spot, "with a car flocked" with the logo of the newspaper, while the latter had been alerted "to an event in the neighborhood", says one of the two editors of the newspaper, Geraldine Baehr-Pastor.
"We don't know if he went out alone, or if someone got him out of the car," says co-editor Carole Lardot.
The colleague "only heard an altercation", before finding the photographer.
This afternoon in #Reims, our colleague and photographer Christian Lantenois was very seriously injured at the Red Cross, while he was doing his work.
His condition is very worrying.
https://t.co/gYTxCMWT70 pic.twitter.com/AAjUE1hq0T
- L'Union-L'Ardennais (@UnionArdennais) February 27, 2021
Who is the victim ?
Christian Lantenois is a 65-year-old press photographer.
"It seems" that he was covering "groups of young people when he was attacked," said the public prosecutor of Reims.
The journalist was "taken care of by the Samu and transferred to the University Hospital of Reims, with a vital prognosis engaged," he said.
The authorities have for the moment "no precise information on what happened, if he received blows or a projectile".
Have people been arrested?
No arrest took place at this stage, according to prosecutor Matthieu Bourrette, who specifies that he "opened an investigation for attempted murder, entrusted to departmental security" to shed light on the circumstances of this attack.
The Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, also reacted on Twitter, assuring that the national police were “fully mobilized” to identify the perpetrators of the attack.
My thoughts are with the photo-journalist seriously injured in the course of his work in Reims.
Solidarity with the editorial staff of @ UnionArdennais and the whole profession.
The @PoliceNationale is fully mobilized to identify and challenge the perpetrators.
https://t.co/YTiQAi0thq
- Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) February 27, 2021
At the time of the tragedy, not far away, "the police were on the spot, had identified movements of young people, some of whom were carrying baseball bats, and reinforcements had been called" to secure the neighborhood, adds by elsewhere the prefect of the Marne, Pierre N'Gahane, who describes the Red Cross as "a sensitive district".
“A year ago, just before confinement, there were two series of clashes between young people from this neighborhood and from another neighborhood,” he says.
Reactions to the Elysée
At L'Union, the determination to continue doing one's job comes after shock.
"Nothing and nobody will ever hinder our will to inform or our freedom to act", reacted the director general of the newspaper, Daniel Picault, expressing his "thoughts" for the victim and his relatives.
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For the mayor (LR) of Reims Arnaud Robinet, this is too much.
“The threshold of the unacceptable has been crossed,” he said on Saturday evening.
Beyond the ignominy of such an act, I want to express my fed up with this bunch of scoundrels who are rotting the life of our neighborhoods ”.
The Elysee also called the editorial staff of The Union "to express its emotion and sympathy, and its wish to see the perpetrators of the aggression arrested as soon as possible".
