Since Friday 30 August, 17 arrests have taken place when anti-A69 protesters were evicted from a camp near the construction site in Saïx. Anti-motorway activists remain on site.
Around sixty trees were felled in a few hours on Sunday 1 September on the route of the A69, according to the Tarn prefecture, despite the presence on site, including in trees, of opponents of this controversial motorway.
“The vast majority have been cut down: 59 trees. Around ten still remain” to be felled, the prefecture told AFP early this afternoon, adding that “there are four people still perched up there”.
The clearing of the construction site for the future Toulouse-Castres motorway began around midnight, “under the protection of the police”, according to the same source.
17 arrests
“The gendarmes were the target of mortar fire and projectiles thrown from catapults”, but “no harm to property or people was reported”, it continued in a press release.
In total, 17 arrests have taken place since Friday, when anti-A69 protesters were dislodged from a camp near the construction site in Saïx. Several of them, however, remained perched in trees, in the hope of preventing their felling.
The activists had built tree houses in advance so that they could retreat there in the event of police intervention, an AFP journalist noted.
On Sunday early afternoon, the cuts continued on the grounds of the former camp, under the gaze of around twenty opponents.
A complaint filed by activists opposed to the project
Some fifty kilometres further on, in Verfeil, in Haute-Garonne, anti-A69 activists occupying another area on the route of the future motorway claimed to have been the victims of a second attempted arson attack during the night from Saturday to Sunday.
Traces of fire were visible on the seat of a car, as well as at the entrance to the field, where the mailbox had burned, an AFP journalist noted.
Following a complaint from these occupants, who reported similar incidents on the night of August 25-26, the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for “damage to property by fire”.
The Castres public prosecutor’s office is also conducting an investigation into “damage by fire” and “group violence” in an opposition camp in mid-August in Tarn.
In recent months, various incidents of damage have also occurred on the site, including fires involving construction equipment, without delaying the work, according to the motorway concessionaire Atosca.
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