Four minors were injured, including two seriously, during a brawl with axes on Monday in the RER E at Ozoir-la-Ferrière station (Seine-et-Marne), facts for which an investigation for attempted assassination was opened, AFP learned from the Melun prosecutor's office and police sources.
The events took place around 8:00 a.m. in an RER E train where there were four teenagers, aged 15 to 17, who were going to high school. According to a police source, the main perpetrator was arrested at his home where an ax and a knife were found.
According to the prosecution's account, as the train arrived at Ozoir-la-Ferrière station, the group of attackers, made up of 8 to 10 people, entered the train and triggered the alarm for the immobilize.
Inside, they beat the targeted teenagers, who are used to sitting in the same place on the RER. The latter were attacked with an axe, an Opinel-type knife, tear gas and a baseball bat. Two were seriously injured, the other two more lightly. They were transported to hospital for treatment, according to a police source.
“There was no severed hand and no vital prognosis involved,” indicated the Melun prosecutor's office, putting into perspective the first information which circulated on the facts and which spoke of an open skull and a severed hand.
The teenagers were injured in the head, arm and hand. One of them risks losing his little finger.
The motive for the attack has not yet been established but the possibility of a “return match” linked to a previous attack between groups from the towns of Roissy-en-Brie and Ozoir-la-Ferrière is favored.
– “Fight between gangs” –
“The investigation is ongoing,” said the Melun prosecutor’s office, not wishing to communicate on possible arrests. The investigation was opened for attempted assassination and entrusted to the Torcy police station.
The fight took place while the train was at the platform, so that “neither the RER E traffic nor that of the station is impacted”, the SNCF had underlined in the morning.
“The facts are probably linked to a brawl between gangs and not to drug trafficking, subject to the result of the investigation conducted by the Melun judicial court,” indicated in a joint press release the prefecture of Seine-et-Marne and the Paris police headquarters.
“The number of patrols on the RER E line has been increased,” add the same sources. The Paris police headquarters is responsible for transport security for the entire Ile-de-France region.
Attacks between rival gangs are regular in Seine-et-Marne, leading to interventions by the police for armed gatherings of dozens of adolescents and young men and violence in meetings, unrelated to drug trafficking.
The phenomenon is particularly present in the Ile-de-France region, which has experienced several deaths of minors in recent years. In mid-October, Meissane, a 16-year-old teenager, was stabbed to death 900 meters from his high school in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis).
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