A group of youths brutally beat the mayor of a small town in the French department of Isère after he attempted to stop them from shooting off fireworks.
Williams Dufour, mayor of Miribel-Les-Échelles, was attacked at around 9 pm on Monday after he had gone to the church square where several youths were letting off fireworks.
According to a report from Actu 17, the youths attacked the 51-year-old mayor so badly he received hospital treatment. He was given seven days’ leave from work due to the extent of his injuries.
Dufour described his injuries to local media shortly after the attack, saying: “I have a dislocated finger, a burn on one hand, and stitches in my brow bone.”
He added that he was accompanied by two of his deputies when he confronted the youths, and despite identifying himself as mayor, the mob still attacked him.
“These are boys of around 16 to 18 years old, who are obviously not from the town,” Dufour said. He claimed there were at least six youths involved and they all fled on mopeds after the attack. A witness identified the licence plate of one scooter, but no one has been arrested as of Tuesday.
While attacks on elected officials in France are relatively rare, attacks by “youths” on police officers and firefighters have become increasingly common in various areas of the country.
In May, police in Strasbourg arrested 20 individuals after firefighters were attacked by a mob that threw various projectiles at them, including Molotov cocktails. Most of those arrested were aged between 13 and 16, with a smaller number of adults who are said to have directed the attack.
Earlier that month in the commune of Romans-sur-Isère there were several days of clashes between youths and police, despite the active Wuhan coronavirus lockdown measures at the time.