© Reuters / Pascal RossignolFrench police officers patrol in the streets of Lille during the late-night curfew.
Ravers aboard hundreds of vehicles started converging on a hangar in Lieuron, Brittany, on Thursday night to party into the New Year, the regional government said Friday. It said police were attacked when they tried to stop ravers from installing their party gear.
On Friday morning, 2,500 ravers from France and abroad were still partying, circled by a reinforced police presence, the regional government said.
© AFP / Jean-Francois MonierA DJ is pictured as the Lieuron rave continues on January 1, 2020.
Party-goers, however, appealed for understanding after months of nightlife-destroying lockdowns and curfews designed to limit coronavirus infections.
A volunteer with an aid group that was distributing masks, anti-virus gel and health advice inside the techno party said ravers needed to let loose. He said ravers are trying to stay safe by not sharing joints or drinks. Their group, Techno +, was advising partygoers to self-isolate for a week and then get tested after attending the rave. The group also said the disused hangar was airy and well-ventilated.
'Zero tolerance'
To execute this order, more than 100,000 police officers, some 32,000 firefighters and 7,000 soldiers have been mobilized across the country on December 31. In Paris alone, some 9,000 officers are assigned to patrol the streets. The number of police working on the ground on an average day in France is around 20,000.
Law enforcement will show "zero tolerance" to those violating the restrictions aimed to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Minister Delegate in charge of Citizenship Marlene Schiappa warned. An infringement of the curfew is punishable with a fine of 135 euro.
Police have been assigned with a triple mission for the night: enforce the curfew, track down illegal parties, and tackle urban violence - traditionally on the rise on New Year's Eve.
The gendarmes "won't go in to check if there are six of you at the table," Schiappa clarified. The authorities are only concerned with large parties that bring together dozens of people and could lead to spikes in Covid infections.
The officers have been asked to not only be strict with those attending such gatherings, but also to do everything possible to identify party organizers.
The coronavirus outbreak remains a difficult situation in France, as the authorities face criticism over the vaccination campaign being too sluggish.
Comment: Is that because, as in other countries, a significant number of people do not want to take the experimental vaccines? So much so that the government is considering coercing citizens into taking them: 'Health dictatorship': French citizens who refuse Covid-19 jab may be BANNED from public transport under 'Green Passport' plan
Patrol car torched & 3 officers injured during chaotic 2,000-strong rave in France that police can't stop
The underground party was held overnight in the town of Lieuron in defiance of anti-coronavirus restrictions banning mass gatherings. It has attracted between 2,000 and 2,500 revelers, many of whom appear to have come "from other departments [of France] and from abroad", the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine has said.
Local gendarmes were dispatched to the scene to break up the rave, but the partygoers were clearly not ready to stop celebrating and fended them off. The officers were pelted with various objects, three of them sustaining light injuries, and at least one of their vehicles was torched. Footage from the scene circulating online shows the car engulfed in flames with onlookers cheering in the background.
The revelers have reportedly been "very determined" to continue partying, and law enforcement agents ultimately opted to cordon off the area to prevent more people joining the rave. As of early Friday, it was still continuing despite the police presence.
The party is taking place in a disused warehouse belonging to a transport company. An investigation is underway to find those responsible for organizing the illegal event and to identify those who used violence against the gendarmes.
A smaller-scale event was also shut down overnight in the southern city of Marseille, with some 300 people estimated to be in attendance. The three alleged organizers of the event have been arrested, and some 150 partygoers were each fined €135 for violating the coronavirus restrictions.
Comment: Whilst police were deployed throughout France to shutdown gatherings that posed no harm to anyone, elsewhere in France, as happens most years, rioters were torching cars; one wonders whether police had their priorities in order?
At least 30 cars TORCHED in Strasbourg, France, as rioters go on annual New Year's violence spree
Dozens of vehicles were set ablaze across Strasbourg, after groups of vandals flouted an 8pm curfew order, taking to the streets for a fiery New Year's Eve custom that's seen hundreds of cars torched over previous holidays.
At least 30 vehicles were destroyed in arson attacks on Thursday night, according to police sources cited by French daily Le Figaro.
"We are already at a certain number of burnt vehicles," said the office of Josiane Chevalier, the prefect of the Bas-Rhin region, adding that several arrests had been made throughout the night.
Smoldering cars, as well as those fully engulfed in flames, were seen in videos posted to social media, in some cases setting off loud blasts as the vehicles' fuel ignited.
Warning earlier on Thursday that there would be no "concession" to vandals, Chevalier said the city "cannot afford to have the same record as last year" and that the authorities had done everything in their power to curtail the car burnings.
In 2019, some 220 cars in the city were incinerated in a relentless string of vandalism on New Year's Eve.
In addition to a nationwide 8pm curfew and a number of street closures in Strasbourg, fireworks had been banned for the entire month of December. Local police also set up "mobile forces" in "strategic locations" across the city, according to Annie Bregal, Bas-Rhin's director of public security. A total of 100,000 officers and gendarmes were stationed across France to enforce the restrictions, and retail sales of fuel were temporarily banned.
The measures did little to stop the rampage on Thursday night, however, with throngs of vandals hitting the streets despite the curfew and sizable law enforcement presence, which included a police helicopter, filmed shining a searchlight on the city below. The ban on fireworks also appears to have been largely ignored, with bangs being heard throughout the night.
Strasbourg is not the only city to have taken part in the annual New Year's arson-fest, with a record 1,457 cars having been burned last year in France as a whole, according to media reports. The year prior saw 1,290 vehicles torched. The destruction has become something of a yearly rite in French suburbs since 2005, when riots gripped Paris and other towns for three weeks, sending countless buildings and cars up in smoke and resulting in at least three deaths.
Comment: And in London police were also deployed to shutdown NYE parties:
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