Clashes and brawls between rivals gangs increased by 24 per cent in France in 2020, the Interior Ministry has revealed.
The Interior Ministry figures show that gang clashes have been on the rise for the last seven years and that 80 per cent of the clashes take part in the Ille-DeFrance region, where both Paris and the no-go Paris suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis are located. In all, such events increased by 24 per cent to a total of 357 so-called violent clashes over the course of 2020.
The majority of those involved in the violence are minors under the age of 18 and the average age of those involved is just over 17-years-old, broadcaster Franceinfo reports. The site characterises the brawlers as “young men” in its report”.
Alain Bauer, a professor of criminology in Paris, stated that nearly any reason can become an excuse for violence, including arguments over drug trafficking in a certain area of simply someone looking at someone else the wrong way.
The levels of violence are also escalating per incident, with 41 people stabbed as a result of gang violence in 2020 and 68 more attacked with other weapons such as hammers or baseball bats.
The Ille-de-France region has become a major area for gang-related violence, and several incidents have made headlines this year, including the lynching of a Ukrainian-background teen boy who was put into a coma after a brutal attack by a gang in January.
The boy, a 14-year-old named Yuriy, was beaten nearly to death by a mob wielding iron bars, a sledgehammer, a crutch and a golf club.
Earlier this week, two 14-year-olds were killed during gang brawls over a period of two days, with one of the victims reported to be a local schoolgirl who was stabbed in the stomach on Monday.
Just a day later, another teenager was stabbed in the throat near the Boussy-saint-Antoine swimming pool. The brawl saw two boys stabbed in total and is said to have involved around 40 gang members from Epinay-sous-Senart and Quincy-sous-Sénart.