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- In northwestern France, hundreds of people broke coronavirus restrictions on New Year’s Eve.
- The revelers were at an illegal rave that lasted more than two days of partying.
- The police confronted the assistants and confiscated a truck, sound equipment and generators from the place.
Hundreds of revelers were booked for breaking coronavirus restrictions when an illegal rave in northwestern France ended on Saturday after more than two days of partying in which there were clashes with police.
Police were unable to stop the underground event, which drew some 2,500 people since Thursday night to two disused warehouses in Lieuron, south of the Brittany city of Rennes.
These mass gatherings are banned in France to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and a countrywide curfew has been in effect at 8:00 p.m. across the country, which was not lifted for the New Year.
Techno music played into the night from warehouses, which had been transformed into illegal nightclubs for partygoers who had flocked to the site from all over France and even abroad.
The local prefecture said on Saturday that the music had been turned off and the sound systems dismantled after two nights, and the first revelers began to leave the scene before dawn.
At 10:15 am it was under police control, the local prefecture said.
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Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a tweet that police had booked more than 1,200 people and seized a truck, stereos and generators from the “illegal rave party” site.
The large police presence in the place had caused the dissolution of the event “without violence,” he added.
The regional prefect, Emmanuel Berthier, said that 800 people had been arrested specifically for crimes related to the coronavirus, such as not respecting curfew restrictions or wearing masks, or for participating in an illegal gathering.
Police fined several hundred more people for the use of narcotics, he told reporters.
‘We had to party’
Police on the access roads were checking everyone leaving the site, on foot or in vehicles, using flashlights to check their eyes for signs of drug use, an AFP photographer said.
Police reinforcements continued to arrive and shut down the site in a quiet environment Saturday morning, the photographer said.
“It’s been a year since we were able to do anything,” said Antoine, a 24-year-old partygoer. The vendor was part of a group of five from Brittany that attended the rave.
With faces drawn but with beers still in hand, the group said that “they had come to celebrate here on the 31st because it was a huge party.”
“We knew what we were risking … we had to celebrate, for a year everything has stalled”
Added a 20-year-old waitress who attended.
Alexis, a 22-year-old baker, said “at one point you say to yourself: ‘I’m going to force my New Year.’
He added that the rave had even been reported in the New York Times, saying “it was the biggest party of the year.”
‘Live in danger’
French authorities have been concerned about massive raves during the pandemic, but New Year’s Eve was a particular concern.
On Thursday night, police had tried “to prevent the event, but faced fierce hostility from many partygoers” who set one of their cars on fire and threw bottles and stones, the prefecture said on Friday.
First aid workers had distributed hand gel and masks at the event to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Britain’s regional health authority noted the “high risk of the spread of Covid-19” at the event and asked those who participated to undergo coronavirus testing and immediately self-isolate for seven days.
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The prefecture said in a tweet that a test center had been set up at a gym in Lieuron.
“They have endangered their lives, their health, now they must protect those around them,” he said.
The party’s organizers are still being sought, local police said, and an investigation has been launched.
The French government, facing the threat of a new wave of Covid-19 infections, announced on Friday that it was extending its nightly curfew by two hours in 15 regions to help fight the virus, starting at 6:00 p.m. in place at 20:00.
The country recorded around 20,000 new cases and 133 deaths on Friday, bringing the total number of deaths to nearly 64,800.
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