At least eight members of the French gendarmes were injured after being attacked by local rioting youths in the commune of Évreux on Monday night, with many areas of the country seeing similar nights of urban violence.
Local youths in the districts of La Madeleine, Navarre, and Nétreville set off fireworks and set fire to several cars, bus shelters, and garbage bins on Monday evening.
According to a report from broadcaster France Bleu, one of the car fires spread to a nearby house. Firefighters later rescued the residents; the occupants will have to be relocated due to the extent of the damage caused by the blaze.
Nicolas Gavard-Gongallud, the deputy mayor of Évreux, condemned the violence, saying: “The inhabitants of Évreux will have to pay out tens of thousands of euros because of a handful of morons who have no values. A very sad night for the city of Évreux. Our thoughts are with the mobile gendarmes, and police officers injured that night.”
Évreux was not the only area to see urban violence on Monday. In Paris, local youths clashed with police in the heavily migrant-populated 18th arrondissement and the 19th arrondissement. Youths set fires and aimed fireworks at police officers, with several videos of incidents posted on social media being reported by French news website actu.fr.
The urban violence comes after several other riots across the country in recent months, many sparked by allegations of police brutality.
Some of the most severe rioting took place in April when at least 25 cities across the country erupted into violence following a motorcycle accident in Villeneuve-la-Garenne that allegedly involved local police.