For the moment, this is a first assessment of the police forces. One hundred and thirty-six people were arrested in Paris on the sidelines of the New Year festivities, the capital's prosecutor's office said this Wednesday, requested by AFP. “Two police vehicles were set on fire, without injuries,” added the public prosecutor.
The reasons for the arrest have not been specified at this stage. According to a police source, people were arrested during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday for burglary, or for throwing projectiles and possessing fireworks near the Bir-Hakeim bridge, in the 15th arrondissement.
One hundred thousand police officers and gendarmes were mobilized throughout France, including 10,000 in Paris and its inner suburbs, to supervise the New Year festivities. Five months after the euphoria of the Olympic Games, Paris once again donned the clothes of light Tuesday evening for the transition to the new year. More than a million people gathered on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, closed to vehicles and lined with dozens of glittering trees.
In the rest of France, a 2-year-old child was injured in the eye and ear by a mortar shot in Lyon (Rhône). In Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), 44 people were arrested last night. A 15-year-old boy also lost his life after being hit by a fleeing vehicle.
