Mon, Jul 3rd 2023
Swiss police arrested seven people in Lausanne following riots in the city center over the weekend.
More than a hundred young people gathered in response to the unrest in France. According to the police, there was property damage to shops. Overnight from Saturday to Sunday, several shop windows in Lausanne city center were smashed including the front door of a large retail store, according to the Lausanne city police.
About 50 officers from the Lausanne city police cantonal police in Vaud and the surrounding communities were on duty on Saturday night. Some police reported hooded youths throwing cobblestones at them. Others threw a Molotov cocktail at police, they said.
The seven people arrested were taken to a police station, a police statement said. Six of the seven were minors between the ages of 15 and 17. The young people are of Swiss, Portuguese, Somali, Bosnian, Georgian and Serbian origin. The police also arrested a 24-year-old Swiss man.
The riots in Lausanne were in reaction to the unrest in France over the death of a young person killed through police violence. At least 427 people in France have been arrested over the weekend.
The French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who wrote on Twitter early Sunday morning that at least 45,000 police officers and thousands of firefighters were deployed to protect order.
On Tuesday, 17-year-old Nahel died during a police check near Paris. The 17-year-old was stopped in Nanterre at the wheel of a car by a motorcycle patrol. When the young man suddenly drove off, police took a fatal shot at the teen. The incident has triggered a wave of violence in France.
This article was reprinted with permission from Keystone SDA.
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic