There was every reason to believe that the night of December 31 to January 1, 2025 would give rise to similar events. “Bordeaux is known for this at the national level,” summarized the inspector general, Jean-Cyrille Reymond, zonal director of the national police, the day before during the briefing with his executives. “It’s a sector that’s always a little eruptive,” confirmed the prefect, Étienne Guyot, calling for discernment.
In the police zone, “we see that the night was noticeably a little less agitated than usual”.
Police operations
It is clear that New Year's Eve was much calmer than expected in Gironde. “We are having a particularly calm New Year's Eve in the gendarmerie zone,” explains the prefect's chief of staff, Grégory Lecru, on this first day of 2025, while waiting for the consolidation of the figures at the national level.
In the police zone, “we see that the night was noticeably a little less agitated than usual,” continues the chief of staff. “Episodes of urban violence of less intensity than usual took place, with less use of fireworks mortars. This is to the credit of the police operations which made it possible to seize and intercept these explosive devices and the checks carried out by the municipal police and the national police during gatherings of people.
From 6:15 p.m. on December 31, while the prefect of Gironde visited the police in their room dedicated to maintaining order, projectiles were thrown at a police vehicle in Lormont. This was followed by a few scooter or trash can fires in the Aubiers and Grand Parc sectors in Bordeaux. Then a few trash fires scattered in a street in Bègles and broadcast on social networks.
At midnight, numerous fireworks rockets went up in the Gironde sky, bringing the curious out of their homes or creating crowds of people attracted by the noise, the color, the party and the need to celebrate together the transition to the new year. From the reflecting pool in Bordeaux to Lormont, from Blayais to Langonnais, fireworks accompanied the stroke of midnight.
In Bègles, a car is driving amidst trash fires lit as people dressed in dark pass by.
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Seven arrests
Then, the game of cat and mouse began, dragging the police into various neighborhoods of the city. Fireworks mortar shots and fires started in the Aubiers district, scooter fire in Cenon, vehicles and trash cans set on fire in Lormont or in the Grand Parc district in Bordeaux or even in Mérignac.
“The risk of acts of violence is highly predictable”, considered the prefect's order authorizing the use for the occasion of six cameras on-board drones in the Bordeaux area in order to “strengthen surveillance to prevent any damage and clashes. Playing the prevention card, the prefecture had also banned the take-out sale of alcohol in glass containers and the purchase, sale, transfer, use, carrying and transport of fireworks and of pyrotechnic articles, while, on their guard, the town halls of Bassens, Cenon, Floirac and Lormont had, among other preventive measures, renewed their curfew for minors.
