Despite the cancellation of the influencer Hachemi’s visit to Lyon for fear of excesses, the frenzy still took over the streets of the city on Thursday. Hachemi had promised on Snapchat a distribution of gifts the day after Christmas in the form of a “giant hide and seek”.
Sensing a disturbance to public order, the prefect Fabienne Buccio decided to ban “the gathering on the public highway not declared by Hachemi as part of the “HMI tour””, she informed on was based on previous examples from Lille and Brussels where the presence of Hachemi “resulted in the gathering of several hundred fans in the greatest disorder […] requiring the intervention of law enforcement in degraded conditions,” according to the prefectural decree.
Projectile throwing, CRS intervention
But the coin was already in the machine and the streets of the center of the city, particularly in Bellecour, were quickly taken over by waves of excited young people who went looking for the influencer, as shown in several videos published on X. “As you noticed, it degenerated,” confirms Yousri, a young person interviewed by BFMTV Lyon.
The police had to intervene “and the CRS engaged [ont fait] use of means to disperse individuals still present in the sector […]following in particular the throwing of projectiles,” said the prefecture. For his part, the influencer who ultimately did not come confided that he had donated the gifts to an orphanage. Hachemi also explained that he was keeping his next destination quiet for a “security issue”.
