Ten people were arrested in the Paris suburb of Valenton this week following a brutal attack on police officers that left two seriously injured, including a policewoman who was kicked while on the ground.
The attack took place Wednesday evening when four police officers from the Villeneuve-Saint-Georges police station approached a group of ten people playing football and called on them to move on after the ball struck cars in a nearby car park several times.
After smelling cannabis, the officers decided to check the ten youths, said to be a mix of teens and adults.
As the check proceeded, one of the youths refused to identify himself and had no documentation on him, claiming several identities as others in the group laughed at the officers, Actu 17 reports.
As the police attempted to take the youth to their car in order to take him to the police station and identify him, the group set upon the officers, violently attacking them.
One of the pair, a woman, was grabbed by the neck and kicked in the face after falling to the ground.
“She received many kicks, especially in the face,” a police source said and another officer was also attacked by the mob while trying to stop the attack on the female officer.
As police attempted to arrest a second suspect, the first gets out of the police vehicle and tried to run away, but he was apprehended by reinforcements.
Officers from the anti-crime squad (BAC) later arrested a third youth suspected of assaulting an officer. Seven more aged between 15 and 20 were arrested a short time later.
The officers were seriously injured as a result of the attack, with the female officer suffering a hematoma in one eye and pains in her knees and legs due to the violence inflicted on her.
The attack is just the latest against police amid France’s ongoing problem with urban violence in parts of the country.
In 2021, an officer in the department of Loire was so badly beaten by youths that he was in a coma for several days. Officer Jean-Paul, 51, had asked youths to leave an area and was attacked after they refused, invoking the Islamic holiday Eid.
After emerging from his coma, the 51-year-old called on the government to do more to counter the growing levels of violence toward police in a recorded message, saying: “I’m making this video because we’re fed up. Fear has to change sides. If nothing is done, tomorrow there will be another police officer or another citizen in my place. It’s never going to stop.”
A report released the same year revealed that within two decades the number of attacks on police officers in France has more than doubled.
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