A deputy mayor of Ivry-sur-Seine was violently attacked and wounded with a knife yesterday around 10:30 p.m., the Créteil prosecutor’s office told AFP. An investigation was opened for attempted intentional homicide on a person holding public authority.
Elected officials of the municipality of Val-de-Marne were leaving a match of the local handball team when they were the target of a “violent attack”, detailed the town hall of Ivry-sur-Seine in a statement.
One of them was attacked by a dozen people, who “hit him in the back of the head”. On the ground, they hit him with three stab wounds in the thigh, said the prosecution. Hooded, the attackers launched threats saying “you kill people, we will kill you”.
First the shock, then an immense anger. All my support to my elected colleagues and to all the victims of this unbearable aggression. @mairieivry @pbouyssouivry #ivry pic.twitter.com/DVEflTXvPn
– nathalie leruch (@nathalieleruch) October 9, 2021
Two relatives of the elected, including another deputy in charge of the elderly, tried to intervene. They suffer from minor injuries. The group of attackers fled.
Tensions between districts
The mayor (PCF) of Ivry-sur-Seine, Philippe Bouyssou, did not communicate the identity of the elected official, but specified that he was in his thirties and held the office of deputy in charge of youth.
In its press release, the municipality condemned “unacceptable violence”, calling on the authorities “to take stock of the gravity of these facts, which divide Ivry and its population.”
“According to the first testimonies collected, it seems that this event is part of the cycle of violence between young people from different neighborhoods which has been going on for too long months in Ivry,” said the press release.
According to the mayor’s chief of staff, the three injured were hospitalized briefly but remain “shocked”. The investigation was entrusted to the judicial police of Val-de-Marne.