This is a chilling affair that still raises many questions. During the day of Saturday December 14, a 22-year-old man, unknown to the police, attacked five peopleall died by gunfire, in the town of Wormhout in the North. Among his victims are his former boss but also two security agents and two migrants. The attacker went immediately after the incident to the Ghyvelde gendarmerie to denounce himself.
Naturally, many journalists traveled to the region to follow the progress of the file as closely as possible. An RTL correspondent, Hermine Le Clech, notably went to the house of one of the victims, that of the business manager, to share the latest information live in the 9 a.m. news. And that’s when she was attacked by local residents. Indeed, listeners were able to hear male voices ordering him to “get out of here“before communication is cut off.”We interrupt the connection with her because obviously she is in troublewe will keep ourselves informed of the situation on site“, declared presenter Stéphane Carpentier. (Sequence to be found in our slideshow).
A shocking scene
It was only in the 10 a.m. news that news from the journalist was broadcast, this time by Sébastien Rouxel. “If you were already with us on the 9 o’clock news, you undoubtedly heard a shocking scene. Our journalist was attacked live while talking about this tragedy. I reassure you, she is fine. The entire editorial team of RTL joins me in condemning these actions“, he declared into his microphone.
Truly shaken by this event, the Society of Journalists (SDJ) of RTL also wanted to react, through an official press release. “An RTL reporter was violently attacked, threatened and forced to fleehis radio equipment being also destroyed by the attacker. The management and editorial staff of RTL provide their full support to the attacked journalist, as well as to all journalists who faced hostility while covering this event, and strongly denounce the threats or violence directed against journalists“.
Note that the intentions of the alleged killer remain unclear and that an investigation has been opened by the public prosecutor’s office of the Dunkirk judicial court. Several offenses have already been held against him, those of murder preceded, accompanied or followed by another crime, and possession, carrying and transport of category A and B weapons.
