It was supposed to be a “peacemaking” event. A football tournament bringing together several rival districts of Corbeil-Essonnes degenerated this Monday, December 30 in the evening. A spectator was hit with a baseball bat, and a general fight broke out in the aftermath.
It was around 8 p.m. when the events occurred at the La Nacelle gymnasium. This is where the football tournament took place. An undeclared tournament, according to the first elements brought to our attention. Asked this Friday, the town hall of Corbeil could not be reached.
Still, at the end of the afternoon, there were more than a hundred players and spectators gathered in the room. Objective of this event: to bring together different rival neighborhoods whose tensions regularly punctuate the life of the municipality. There are young people there from La Nacelle, guests of the day, from Chantemerle and Tarterêts.
Shortly after 8 p.m., as this “peace” tournament draws to a close, an attack occurs in the public. A 21-year-old young man is attacked by another spectator armed with a baseball bat. Wounded in the back of the head, the victim was hospitalized at the CHSF (South Paris Hospital Center) immediately, where she escaped with a few stitches. At the same time, scuffles broke out in the gymnasium between a few dozen people. The front door is damaged in the rush. The situation returned to calm in the evening with the intervention of the police.
The initial attack with a bat was allegedly committed by a young person who had a personal dispute with the injured man, who did not wish to file a complaint. Both would come from rival cities. An investigation into “violence with a weapon” was opened and entrusted to the Évry-Courcouronnes police station to clarify the contours of this evening which descended into violence.
“This incident should not make us forget all the initiatives carried out to stem the phenomenon of brawls,” argues an associative actor from Corbeil. The Spartans rugby club, for example, organizes humanitarian trips to extract young people from the climate of violence present in their neighborhood.
