Béziers (F): an apartment burnt down by a mortar shot

An apartment was burnt down in the presence of its occupant in the night from Saturday to Sunday in a sensitive district of Béziers, after a fireworks mortar, during violence caused by fifty people, we learned from concordant sources.

“The mortar ignited the apartment and required the rescue by means of a person blocked in the 4th and other people refugees on the roof. The emergency services had to intervene in a tense situation, under the protection of the internal security forces, “said the Hérault firefighters.

The disaster completely destroyed the 130 m2 apartment, which belonged to an elderly person, without making any other victim than the occupant’s cat. A dozen occupants of the building were evacuated.

According to Commissioner Eric Agniel, of the interdepartmental management of the national police, these violence are the result of “an ambush” organized by the drug traffickers in reaction to “several drug arrests and seizures for a few days in this Devèze district”.

“They contacted the firefighters themselves for a trash fire and they were nearly fifty, some of which on the roofs of the buildings”, upon arrival. At the call of the firefighters, several members of the anti -crime brigade then went to the scene “before being trapped by individuals,” said Commissioner Agniel, according to whom “the riot was finally stopped following the embrace of the apartment”.

Also according to Commissioner Agniel, a police officer was slightly injured in the calf by a mortar shot.

“These facts will be likely to be qualified as violence with weapons, within the framework of an ambush and on a person depositary of the public authority, voluntary destruction by fire of the property of others, and have 10 years of imprisonment to their authors incur for their authors,” said AFP the prosecutor of the Republic of Béziers, Raphaël Balland who opened an investigation.

“They are probably related to a series of arrests of small resellers and the seizure of a large quantity of narcotics in recent days in this neighborhood,” he added recalling that “all those who participate directly or indirectly in these drug trafficking, in particular consumers, have their share of responsibility”.

A minor suspected of reselling narcotics was referred on Saturday before the children’s judge, a second will be on Sunday and an adult will be tried in immediate appearance on Monday, according to the prosecutor.

Regarding the violence of the night, no arrest took place at this stage.