An electric scooter is blamed for a violent fire that killed 4 in a French city
PARIS: Four people were killed in an 'extremely violent' blaze seemingly caused by a battery-powered electric scooter that tore through a 10-story housing block in Reims, the capital of France's Champagne region, authorities said Saturday.
A 13-year-old jumped to his death from the 4th-floor apartment where the fire started in the early hours of Friday and a burned body found inside is believed to be that of his older brother, aged 15, said Reims prosecutor François Schneider.
An 87-year-old woman and her 59-year-old son who lived on the 8th floor suffocated to death in the smoke, he said.
Two people were seriously injured, including the dead boys' stepfather who was badly burned, and 26 others were treated in hospital for lighter injuries, he said.
Schneider said there is 'no doubt' that the blaze was accidental, spreading quickly from the scooter that caught fire for reasons unknown.
Battery fires 'are extremely difficult to extinguish' and fire officers battled the blaze for more than three hours, the prosecutor said.
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Arab News
19 hours ago
- Arab News
An electric scooter is blamed for a violent fire that killed 4 in a French city
PARIS: Four people were killed in an 'extremely violent' blaze seemingly caused by a battery-powered electric scooter that tore through a 10-story housing block in Reims, the capital of France's Champagne region, authorities said Saturday. A 13-year-old jumped to his death from the 4th-floor apartment where the fire started in the early hours of Friday and a burned body found inside is believed to be that of his older brother, aged 15, said Reims prosecutor François Schneider. An 87-year-old woman and her 59-year-old son who lived on the 8th floor suffocated to death in the smoke, he said. Two people were seriously injured, including the dead boys' stepfather who was badly burned, and 26 others were treated in hospital for lighter injuries, he said. Schneider said there is 'no doubt' that the blaze was accidental, spreading quickly from the scooter that caught fire for reasons unknown. Battery fires 'are extremely difficult to extinguish' and fire officers battled the blaze for more than three hours, the prosecutor said.
Asharq Al-Awsat
a day ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Palestinian Detained in France after Rabbi Hit with Chair
A Palestinian man was taken into custody after he threw a chair at a rabbi on a cafe terrace in a wealthy Paris suburb, a police source told AFP, in an attack France's main Jewish association condemned as antisemitic. According to the source, the suspect attacked Rabbi Elie Lemmel in the western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Lemmel, who wore a traditional kippah cap and a long beard, was taken to hospital with a head injury. The assailant was arrested. The attacker is a Palestinian man residing illegally in Germany, said a source close to the case, adding that the man benefits from a status that offers a form of protection for people who cannot be deported to a conflict zone. An investigation has been launched into aggravated assault, prosecutors said. The rabbi said he had been attacked twice in the space of a week. Last Friday he was attacked in the northwestern town of Deauville when three drunk individuals hit him in the stomach. On Friday, the rabbi was talking to a person he had arranged to meet when he was attacked, receiving "a huge blow to the head". "I fell to the ground and heard people shouting 'stop him', and I realized that I had just been attacked," he told broadcaster BFMTV. "I am very afraid that we are living in a world where words are generating more and more evil," he said. The French Jewish community, one of the largest in the world, has faced a number of attacks and desecrations of memorials since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, 2023. In January, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) deplored what it called a "historic" level of antisemitic acts. - 'Clashes fueled by hatred' - While welcoming the fact that attack was not fatal, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou deplored "the radicalization of public debate." "Day after day, our country is plagued by clashes fueled by hatred," he told reporters, also pointing to assaults against "our Muslim compatriots". The CRIF condemned "in the strongest possible terms the anti-Semitic attack on the rabbi". "In a general context where hatred of Israel fuels the stigmatization of Jews on a daily basis, this attack is yet another illustration of the toxic climate targeting French Jews," the CRIF said on X. Yonathan Arfi, the CRIF president, said: "Nothing, not even solidarity with the Palestinians, can ever justify attacking a rabbi." France's Holocaust memorial, three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalized with paint last week. A judge has charged three Serbs with vandalizing the Jewish sites "to serve the interests of a foreign power", a judicial source said on Friday. In 2024, a total of 1,570 antisemitic acts were recorded in France, according to the interior ministry. Officials say the number of such crimes has increased in the wake of the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 by Palestinian group Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people. The attack was followed by relentless Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which the Hamas-run health ministry has said resulted in the deaths of at least 54,677 people, and an aid blockade.
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
Palestinian under psychiatric evaluation after hitting rabbi in France
PARIS: A Palestinian man arrested on Friday for throwing a chair at a rabbi in a Paris suburban cafe has been sent to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, French authorities said. The reason for the attack was unknown, but France's main Jewish association condemned it as an antisemitic assault, and French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou blamed a 'radicalization of public debate' against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza. The rabbi, Elie Lemmel, suffered a gash to his head from the chair that hit him as he was speaking with a companion in the cafe in the wealthy western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. The local prosecutors' office said that it had opened a criminal investigation for assault possibly aggravated by religious motives. It said the Palestinian, an irregular migrant living with temporary papers in Germany, was thought to be 28 years old and born in the Gaza city of Rafah. It added that 'he is undergoing a psychiatric examination requiring his forced hospitalization.' France's hard-line interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said on X that the Palestinian 'had no reason to be in France' and should be 'severely punished and deported.' The French Jewish association CRIF said on X that 'this attack is yet another illustration of the toxic climate targeting French Jews.' The French Jewish community, one of the largest in the world, has faced a number of attacks and desecrations of memorials since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, 2023. French authorities are alert to antisemitic attacks, reports of which have been on the rise as the war in Gaza grinds on. That conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023 when the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked parts of Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,218 people. Israel retaliated with relentless bombardments and an aid blockade of the Gaza Strip. The ongoing military operation has resulted in the deaths of at least 54,677 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
