In the RER E, an ax brawl leaves several injured, which we know

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS – A surge of violence took place this Monday, November 4 in the RER E, early in the morning. Four people were injured during an ax brawl at Ozoir-la-Ferrière station, in Seine-et-Marne, two of them seriously.

According to investigators, the trail of revenge between rival gangs is favored on this back-to-school day of the All Saints' Day holidays.

• What happened?

Around 8 a.m., in the RER E, a fight involving several people, including minors, broke out at Ozoir-la-Ferrière station. According to a police source cited by AFP, the four victims – minors aged 16 and 17 – were attacked on their way to high school. They were transported to hospital for treatment, added this source, specifying that their vital prognosis was not in jeopardy.

One of the victims had his hand cut off and another had his head cut open with an axe, the same source added. Two others were more lightly injured.

The fight took place while the train was at the platform after an alarm was sounded, so that “neither RER E traffic nor that of the station are impacted”we underlined at the SNCF.

The perpetrators used several bladed weapons: knife, axe, katana and baseball bats.

• Where are the perpetrators?

It is clear that the sources are not unanimous at the moment. The police prefects of Paris and Seine-et-Marne thus used the conditional tense in a joint press release stipulating that “the perpetrators would still be sought”.

However, according to a police source at franceinfo, a 16-year-old minor was arrested late in the morning. A police source also told AFP that the main suspect, aged 16, was arrested at his home and placed in police custody. An ax was found and seized during the search.

• What is the lead favored by the investigators?

“The facts are probably linked to a fight between gangs and not to drug trafficking, subject to the result of the investigation conducted by the Melun judicial court”specified the prefects.

According to information from Parisianthis episode of violence occurs in a context of rivalry between young people from Roissy-en-Brie and Ozoir-la-Ferrière, revived around ten days ago by the beating of a young person from Ozoir. It could therefore be a retaliation for an ambush.

According to a witness to the scene interviewed by The Parisianthe Ozoir attackers had the habit of traveling in the last car of the train of high school students from Roissy-en-Brie. “They knew that young people from Roissy got on at the back and were hidden at the start of the platform at that level”explains this witness to the national daily.

• What consequences after this violent brawl?

“The number of patrols on the RER E line has been increased”indicated the prefect of police, responsible for transport security for the entire Île-de-France region.

“I asked the SNCF to make video surveillance tapes available to identify the perpetrators and put them out of harm’s way”declared for her part Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Île-de-France Region, on X.

The investigation, opened for intentional violence in meetings, was entrusted to the Torcy central police station.

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