An illegal migrant armed with a rifle shot several times at French police officers in the city centre of Carpentras on Wednesday morning after they stopped a brawl.
The brawl took place at around 2 a.m. on Wednesday and involved five people. Police were alerted to the incident by local residents and arrived on the scene a short time later. When the officers arrived, four of the people involved fled the area, while the remaining man was treated for injuries.
The 49-year-old man told the police what one of the people involved in the brawl had been armed with a sawed-off rifle and officers found a 9mm shell casing on the ground nearby to the location the brawl occurred, Actu 17 reports.
Police moved to pursue the other suspects and came upon the armed man, who they later learned is a 23-year-old illegal migrant from Tunisia.
After the Tunisian entered a nearby building, officers from the local police and the anti-crime brigade (BAC) entered the building as well and then heard a gunshot coming in their direction.
Before the 23-year-old was able to inflict any harm, police fired a non-lethal defence ball launcher at him as he was attempting to reload. They then used an electric pulse weapon to subdue him and take him into custody.
The migrant was said to have been intoxicated and likely under the influence of narcotics during the encounter, and police carried out a toxicological exam following the arrest.
The incident comes just months after police in the southern city of Marseilles were targetted by gunfire following an operation against drug dealing in the area of La Bricarde in October.
“They had to throw themselves on the ground to avoid the bullets, several of which came to be stuck in a wall against which the agents had been leaning just before the shots,” a police source said in describing the incident.
Anti-police violence has been on the rise in France for years, with attacks on officers more than doubling over the last two decades.
The issue of urban violence and insecurity has become a focal point of the upcoming French presidential election, with a poll from earlier this year indicating that 86 per cent of French saw security and the fight against terrorism as important issues that could sway their presidential election vote.
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