An 18-year-old illegal migrant in the French city of Lille has appeared in court after being accused of luring police officers into a violent ambush.
The incident took place on October 27th and is said to have seen 18-year-old Malek B., who arrived in France in 2014 and is described as being in an irregular situation, allegedly call the police from his friend’s mobile phone to inform them that someone was in the middle of stealing the wheels from a car.
“There are three of them, they are masked, two wheels have already been stolen, and they are stealing the third!” the teen allegedly told the police, Actu reports.
After police arrived on the scene to find there was no car with its wheels removed, they were then set upon and violently attacked by four individuals.
Following the ambush, police traced the phone back to a young woman who had created the phone account for the teen.
Police were able to identify and arrest Malek B. on November 24th. Investigations also found he had a criminal record that included acts of violence against police and drug offences, and that he had previously been sentenced to five years in prison by a juvenile court.
The teen appeared in court on Tuesday and asked for a delay in the proceedings to prepare his defence, while his lawyer called for leniency.
Anti-police violence has become more and more common in France in recent years, with Ministry of the Interior statistics noting that the number of attacks on officers has more than doubled in the last two decades to an average of 85 attacks per day on public authority officials.
According to the statistics the Nord department, where the city of Lille is located, is one of the areas with the highest number of attacks on police.
Luring police to areas for ambush attacks is also not uncommon. In 2018, local youths in the city of Mulhouse used guerrilla-style tactics that included laying traps for officers such as setting garbage cans on fire.
In Marseilles, attacks on police have been even worse, with officers reportedly targeted by Kalashnikov rifle fire in October of this year.
Rudy Manna, departmental secretary of the Alliance police union in the Bouches-du-Rhône, said the situation in the southern French city was like a military conflict. “It is war in the northern districts of Marseilles. It is almost a lawless area,” he said.