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Saturday, January 02, 2021
Police forcibly evicted
2500 ravers keep partying
Illegal parties despite the contact ban were reported on New Year’s Eve. One event in Brittany, however, outshines all others. Several thousand ravers celebrate in a warehouse, for days, without masks or distance. The police fail to end the event.
In western France, an illegal New Year’s Eve party with around 2,500 participants got completely out of hand: despite Corona requirements and curfew, ravers from different regions of France and abroad celebrated in a small town of Brittany. When the police wanted to end the party, they were violently attacked and evicted. The raver party with techno music is still going on. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin called a special meeting on the situation.
When the police wanted to break up the illegal party in an empty warehouse in Lieuron south of Rennes on Thursday evening, they faced “violent hostility”, according to the prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany. During the riots, a police vehicle was set on fire and three others were damaged. Bottles and stones were thrown, officials were slightly injured.
Police have been stationed at intersections near the party since Friday and kept newly arrived partygoers out of the driveway. According to the gendarmerie, those who left the premises were “systematically” checked and more than 200 tickets were distributed. A helicopter had also flown over the area during the day.
“Shame on our country”
Many of the techno fans at the party were not wearing masks and were not keeping a safe distance. Helpers distributed disinfectant gel and masks to contain the risk of spreading the coronavirus. One raver reported that the party should last until Saturday; others even went as of Tuesday. Deputy Florian Bachelier from the region spoke of a “shame for our country.
The prosecution opened an investigation into the violent clashes. Interior Minister Darmanin wanted to hold a meeting on Friday night in Paris on how to restore a “normal situation”, as he wrote on the Twitter online service.
An illegal party was also broken up in Marseille on New Year’s Eve; according to authorities, 300 people had attended the party. Security forces found nearly 120 celebrators in an empty hangar in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris.
A massive increase in corona infections is feared in France. On Friday, the number of new infections in 24 hours was again around 20,000. Now the nightly curfew imposed to contain the coronavirus in France, which was also applied on New Year’s Eve, will begin in particularly affected areas from Saturday at 6 p.m. and not at 8 p.m.
