Two men were arrested on Thursday, January 9, following the attack on several caregivers in the emergency room in Annemasse (Haute-Savoie). This Friday the 10th, they saw their custody extended, indicated the Thonon-les-Bains prosecutor’s office.
The two individuals, “two brothers are actually placed in police custody. The police custody will be extended and the investigation continues”, to the Thonon-les-Bains prosecutor Xavier Goux-Thiercelin in a brief press release.
The two men, who came to consult on Wednesday evening for one of them at the emergency room of the Pays de Savoie Private Hospital (HPPS) in Annemasse and unhappy with the waiting times, are suspected of having attacked the staff of the service , leaving six injured during a very violent episode.
The companion of the other accused, who was waiting on a stretcher, allegedly entered the department, before attacking “verbally and physically” to a nurse, “unhappy” after a “waiting for ten minutes”.
“He pushed her, dragged her by the hair,” described colleagues of the first victim. 15 emergency personnel, including a doctor, “then came to the aid of their colleague.”
Among the fourteen personnel involved in the fight, “all in a state of psychological shock”six suffer from “facial swelling” and for some of them “from a cracked rib, trauma to an ankle or a broken hand”.
They were all expected to file a complaint Thursday evening at the Annemasse police station, according to the hospital, which announced that it would close its doors until Monday morning.
-“Zero tolerance”
The two men were arrested the next day, according to the Haute-Savoie prefecture, after having fled by car the day before.
The attack provoked numerous reactions, including that of the Minister of Health Yannick Neuder, who denounced Friday “a situation, unfortunately, which recurs often” et “intolerable”for which there will be “zero tolerance”.
The minister added that he “envisage” to go there on Saturday, speaking on the sidelines of a trip on the theme of flu to the Cochin hospital in Paris.
The SAMU-Urgences de France and the National Council of the Order of Physicians also strongly condemned the attack, according to press releases.
Every day on average, in France, 65 healthcare professionals are victims of physical attacks.
