Curtain drawn, windows open to the four winds on blackened walls. A pungent burning smell escapes. “You saw, this is where it burned“, points out a passerby, the day after the fire which ravaged the L’Arto bakery in Montfavet.
Very quickly, the rumor spread in this residential neighborhood of Avignon. In the middle of the night, the day before, Wednesday, the screaming sirens of fire trucks and police cars came to disrupt the peace of the place. Inside the commercial premises as well as upstairs, the flames took over the building, located at 313, avenue des Vertes-rives, leading the firefighters to intervene, around 1:30 in the morning.
On site, when emergency services arrived, everything suggested a fire of criminal origin. The police observed signs of a break-in. In the building, the premises are degraded. And on the walls, investigators discovered a series of racist and homophobic inscriptions. According to initial findings made on site, several fireplaces were lit in different locations. Lined with these sordid inscriptions.
According to the first elements of the investigation, the bakery apprentice, of Malian origin, could be the target of these inscriptions. The word “negro” appeared in particular on the walls. Personal revenge? Act of one or more fanatics? The investigation, which is just starting, should allow the perpetrators and the exact circumstances of the events to be identified. No arrests have been made so far.
The majority of the premises were destroyed, and the bakery is expected to remain closed for at least several days.
