A young miner died on New Year's Eve after being hit by a motorist. The driver involved fled.
A teenager died on New Year's Eve in Strasbourg after being hit by a motorist, the city of Strasbourg said this Wednesday, January 1. The driver fled after the accident.
The accident took place in the Cité de l'Ill district, the prefecture told AFP, a sensitive district in the north of Strasbourg.
A “gliding flight” according to his sister
According to the young man's sister, contacted by BFMTV, they had both just spent New Year's Eve at their grandparents' house. She had just made him get out of his car at a zebra crossing 50 meters from the family home in order to return home when he was hit.
Still according to his sister, the teenager glided, and his body ended up 30 meters from the zebra crossing after the impact. The events took place, according to the young woman, around 3 a.m.
Another witness claims, like the victim's sister, that the motorist involved did not slow down after the impact and fled quickly in the general crush.
“I send my condolences to the loved ones of the young man who died in the night,” commented the mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, in a press release. “All light must be shed on the circumstances of this tragedy, and every effort must be made to find its author.”
Nearly 700 police officers mobilized in Strasbourg
New Year's Eve was placed under high surveillance in France, particularly in Strasbourg where incidents were recorded in several sensitive neighborhoods on the nights preceding New Year's Eve.
Nearly 700 police officers were engaged, during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, in Strasbourg and its agglomeration as well as 500 gendarmes in the rest of Bas-Rhin, indicated the prefect of this department, Jacques Witkowski, during a press point Tuesday.
1,100 firefighters were also mobilized, including more than 300 in the Eurometropolis, and a helicopter from the national gendarmerie was available, as well as drones, he listed.
During the previous nights, “around forty arrests” took place in Strasbourg following vehicle damage, trash fires but also urban violence, the prefect recalled.
Nicolas Rodier, with Juliette Moreau Alvarez and AFP
