Two North African migrants, one already subject to a deportation order, were arrested this week after ramming a French police vehicle and injuring four officers.
The two North Africans, a 31-year-old Moroccan and a 36-year-old Algerian, were taken into custody by police in Vitrolles, near Marseilles, on Sunday evening after fleeing from a police checkpoint in the van they were driving.
As the two migrants tried to flee the officials, their van rammed a police car which contained four officers. The officers were all injured as a result of the collision and were later taken to a local hospital with injured necks and backs, CNews reports.
The two migrants were arrested a short time later in Marseilles. The Algerian is said to have been on the File of Wanted People, a database of criminals wanted by law enforcement, and was already subject to a deportation order.
The incident is just the latest anti-police attack in France this year and comes just weeks after officers and firefighters were ambushed by Molotov cocktail-hurling youths in a “sensitive” area of the city of Limoges.
The battle between the residents, who allegedly lured out the police and firefighters before ambushing them, lasted around four hours, and saw the driver of a vehicle attempt to ram into officers before being stopped by non-lethal rounds which broke the vehicle’s windshield.
In the French city of Vitry-sur-Seine, meanwhile, a police station was also attacked by residents wielding Molotov cocktails and mortar fireworks, with police being attacked after they attempted to leave the station and pursue the attackers.
Anti-police violence remains a major issue in France, with a protest held last year seeing an estimated 35,000 police and their supporters take to the streets of Paris to demand the government do more to stem violence against them.
According to a report from earlier that year, the number of attacks on French police has doubled in the last 20 years.
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