The night of New Year’s Eve was marked by violence At Mont Saint-Siméona popular neighborhood of Noyon. Several vehicles were set on fire, and minor clashes broke out between a group of young people and the police.
According to a press release from the association “Dans Vous, Noyon Otherwise”, led by Ouicem Gadacha, opposition municipal councilor, these events reflect a worrying rise in tensions in the city. “These unacceptable acts of violence undermine the security of our city and the daily life of its residents,” he denounced in a message published on Facebook on Wednesday January 1. Former deputy to Mayor Sandrine Dauchelle, Ouicem Gadacha was her district representative.
The association expressed its solidarity with the victims of arson, emphasizing that “these cars are not simple material goods: they are, for many, essential work tools”. She also called for rapid action to strengthen security and ensure that “these acts do not go unpunished.”
A massive intervention by the police
Le Courrier Picard reports that incidents between young people and a gendarmerie patrol led to the deployment of around twenty soldiers this New Year’s Eve. The events began around 11 p.m., when a patrol was attacked after a check routine in a building on Allée des Cordes-aux-Champs.
As the police returned to their vehicle, after an inspection, they discovered damage to their vehicle: a broken window and rearview mirror. Shortly after, a group of around ten people, dressed in black and hidden under hoods, fired fireworks, some of them in the direction of the gendarmes. Although these shots caused no injuries, the patrol had to withdraw to avoid any escalation.
The police then returned in larger numbers, with 20 gendarmes and four municipal police officers, to secure the intervention of firefighters who had come to put out trash fires in the surrounding streets. The situation was brought under control around 1:30 a.m., explains the Compiègne gendarmerie company.
