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Police sources said the riots were sparked by an attack on a 10-year-old Chechen community member on June 10.
Members of the Chechen diaspora organized the so-called punitive raids to avenge the attack, according to police.
According to france24.com, after three nights of uninterrupted violence on Monday morning, some 150 people, some of them hooded and armed, gathered again in Dijon and set fire to garbage cans and cars.
According to police sources, some of them also shot themselves in the air.
“Such events are unprecedented and unacceptable,” said Mayor Francois Rebsamen.
Without tensions over the weekend, the interior minister ordered a police reinforcement sent to Dijon and said Monday that the government would take control of the situation.
The attacks, which started on Friday, lasted three nights in a row. Many people had a baseball bat.
Local Prefect Bernard Schmeltz, a senior official in the region, said in a statement that the violence in Dijon “proved to be part of understanding the relations between the Chechen community in France and the local population.”
Police said about 50 Chechens stormed the Gresilles district on Saturday night in an incident. There was a shooting, the owner of the pizzeria was seriously injured.
Even more fierce people, around 200, stormed Gresilles again on Sunday night.
In an interview with local newspaper Le Bien Public, a man claiming to be Chechen said such attacks were aimed at taking revenge on the 16-year-old boy attacked by local drug traffickers.
“There were about a hundred of us; people came not only from all of France, but also from Belgium and Germany. We had no intention of robbing the city or hurting people,” said a man whose name was not mentioned.
Dijon District Attorney Eric Mathais said a total of three people were injured in three incidents on three consecutive nights, but no one has yet been arrested. He added that an investigation into an attack by a criminal group had been launched.
Mr. Rebsamen spoke by telephone with the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner. After this conversation, reinforcements from the police force were dispatched.
According to the mayor, 37 riot police arrived on Sunday and another 110 gendarmes on Monday.
Chechnya is a predominantly Muslim Russian republic in the North Caucasus. The two wars that rocked Chechnya in the 1990s sparked a wave of emigration. Many Chechens went to Western Europe.
These riots erupted amid tensions between the French government and the police. In France, during protests against racial inequality and police brutality, the government said last week that it would ban police officers from using life-threatening neck pressure against detainees. Still, on Monday, the government changed its mind after police protested the plans.
As an alternative, the possibility of expanding the use of electric discharge devices is being considered.
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