A man, arrested Tuesday evening on a train in Toulon, is suspected of having killed a homeless man in Lyon by hitting him with a concrete block and of having carried out attacks with the same modus operandi in other cities in France and in Rotterdam (The Netherlands).
He presented himself during his arrest as a 32-year-old Cameroonian subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), according to a police source.
In addition to the murder in Lyon, the police are questioning its role in several attacks carried out with a similar “mode of operation” in Evry, Dijon, Strasbourg, as well as in Rotterdam.
Tuesday evening, the railway police were called after the attack on a young woman on board a train. Its author was arrested at Toulon station.
“After checking the file of wanted persons, they realized that he was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by an investigating judge in Evry,” the prosecutor of Evry told AFP. Toulon Samuel Finielz.
“The man has been placed in detention and measures will be taken to ensure that he is transferred to the ordering investigating judge,” he added, without giving further details.
According to the Evry public prosecutor's office, this warrant was aimed at an attempted homicide committed on October 23 on the square in front of the Evry-Courcouronnes station.
A man, who was sleeping, received a concrete block in the face. Initially hospitalized with a vital prognosis, the victim was finally given a total incapacity for work for 45 days, the prosecution explained to AFP.
A murder was committed in the same way in Lyon, where a homeless man of Moldovan nationality was discovered dead Monday morning with a large wound on his head, a bloody concrete block next to him.
A CCTV camera filmed someone hitting him in the head. An investigation into murder has been opened.
Analyzes, in particular DNA, are underway to verify whether the man arrested is indeed the author of this homicide, according to a judicial source.
– “Big tile” –
On the night of November 4 to 5, a homeless man was attacked in the same way in Rotterdam. The scene was also filmed.
In a wanted notice, published on the internet, the Dutch police released an image of a dark-skinned man, aged around thirty, wearing a black jacket, blue pants and orange lace-up shoes. “This man seriously injured a homeless man this week with a large tile,” she wrote.
He was then located on board an international train heading to Belgium.
After the arrest in Toulon, the Dutch police said they were “investigating to find out if this is the suspect linked to the Rotterdam attack”. “At this stage, we cannot confirm it,” its spokesperson Janine Tuinfort told AFP.
In Dijon, in July, a 42-year-old woman was also attacked by an individual who hit her in the head with one or more rocks, according to the prosecutor. The victim's ITT was set at 10 days.
A police source also mentions an attack in Strasbourg. The city prosecutor's office was not immediately available to provide details.
In 2023, at least 735 homeless people died in France, a figure of unprecedented magnitude, according to figures published at the end of October by the Collectif Les Morts de la Rue, which has been conducting an annual census since 2012. However, these data are to be interpreted with caution because “a significant part of the deaths” escapes the collective. Although the cause of death remains unknown in more than half of the cases recorded, 5 to 6% are due to an attack.
Nearly 300,000 people were homeless in France, including around 40,000 homeless, according to a report from the Court of Auditors published in early 2021.
