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Soldiers to be deployed around France after string of attacks on public Soldiers to be deployed around France after string of attacks on public
(about 7 hours later)
Up to 300 soldiers will be deployed around France to beef up security after three separate incidents in as many days left more than 20 people injured, including three police officers. France stepped up security across the country on Tuesday, deploying extra troops to towns and cities after a series of bloody attacks on the public.
Patrols by police and gendarmes will also be stepped up in areas where the public is deemed to be at risk. The additional measures in a country already on high alert against a possible terrorist threat followed three days in which three separate incidents left one person dead and more than 20 injured, including three police officers.
France’s prime minister, Manuel Valls, announced the deployment after a crisis meeting at Matignon, his official residence. On Tuesday morning, French prime minister Manuel Valls announced the deployment of hundreds of extra troops and increased patrols over the holiday period by armed police and gendarmes.
The decision came shortly after the French president, François Hollande, announced that one victim of an attack on Monday evening, in which a man drove into a crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in Nantes, has been declared clinically dead. Nine other Christmas shoppers were injured. Within hours, the increased security was in evidence across the French capital, with soldiers at the city’s most famous landmarks, transport hubs and popular shopping areas, including the Champs Elysées, where the public were deemed to be at risk from random attacks
Valls and the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, went to Nantes on Tuesday afternoon to support the victims. The sense of threat was not helped by mixed messages from France’s politicians.
“The number of patrols will be increased during this period. Between 200 and 300 soldiers will be deployed in the coming hours,” Valls said. On Monday, Valls warned of the menace from Islamist radicals and “lone wolf” extremists returning from waging jihad abroad. “We have never experienced such a great danger of terrorism,” Valls said.
“Patrols by police and gendarmes will concentrate on areas where there are a lot of people: shopping areas, city and town centres, stations and transport networks.” A day later, after holding a crisis meeting at Matignon, the prime minister’s official residence, and announcing that between 200 and 300 extra soldiers would be deployed, Valls sought to calm public fears, calling for “sangfroid and vigilance”.
France’s authorities said the three attacks did not seem to be connected, and only one has been linked to a suspected Islamic fundamentalist. He confirmed his belief that the three incidents were not linked. However, he said he understood the “very real and legitimate concerns” caused by the succession of events.
Earlier on Tuesday, Valls called for “composure and vigilance”, adding he understood the “very real and legitimate concerns” caused by the incidents.
“In a great democracy like ours, the best response is to continue to get on with our lives calmly. The words vigilance and unity must be the order of the day,” Valls told Europe 1 radio.“In a great democracy like ours, the best response is to continue to get on with our lives calmly. The words vigilance and unity must be the order of the day,” Valls told Europe 1 radio.
“We should not underestimate these acts,” he added. “In moments of crisis, there shouldn’t be arguments about what is the most appropriate response.” “We should not underestimate these acts. In moments of crisis, there shouldn’t be arguments about what is the most appropriate response.”
The van driver who ploughed into the Christmas market in Nantes, western France, on Monday evening was described by police as having psychological and family difficulties. The additional troops bring the number patrolling France to 780, said Valls.
The man, 37, deliberately steered a white Peugeot van into shoppers enjoying mulled wine at the market, in a pedestrian area of the city. The first of the attacks came on Saturday, when Bertrand Nzohabonayo, a former rapper from Burundi who had converted to Islam, who reportedly cried “Allahu Akbar”, attacked police officers with a knife before he was shot dead in Joué-lès-Tours near the city of Tours.
He then pulled out a knife and stabbed himself several times in the chest. After he was taken to hospital, where his condition was described on Tuesday as serious but not life-threatening, investigators said they found a notebook containing confused ramblings suggesting he had psychological difficulties. The assailant had a criminal record for a theft in 2006 and vandalising a vehicle in 2008, according to police sources. A day later, a 40-year-old man ploughed into pedestrians in Dijon, injuring 13 people. The man, who had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital on more than 150 occasions, targeted groups of people at five locations in the city during a rampage that lasted at least 30 minutes, in what investigators said appeared to be a premeditated attack. He is now in police custody and was “put under official investigation” for attempted murder, the equivalent of being charged.
“We cannot speak of an act of terrorism,” Brigitte Lamy, the Nantes public prosecutor, told journalists. “It appears to be an isolated case.” She added that there had been no religious or other claims made. “We need to verify this, but it appears to be the same kind of attack as that which took place in Dijon.” On Monday evening, a van driver deliberately drove into a Christmas market in Nantes in western France, injuring 10 shoppers, one of whom – a 25-year-old man – died in hospital.
Lamy was referring to an incident on Sunday, when a 40-year-old man drove into a group of pedestrians, injuring 11 people. The man was later found to have been admitted to a psychiatric hospital on more than 150 occasions. It came a day after a former rapper from Burundi, who had converted to Islam, attacked police officers with a knife, allegedly crying “Allahu Akbar”, before he was shot dead in Joué-lès-Tours. The driver, aged 37, who police said was suffering from “psychological and family difficulties” and “alcohol-related problems”, ploughed a white Peugeot van into a group of shoppers enjoying mulled wine at the market in a pedestrian area of the city. He then pulled out a knife and stabbed himself several times in the chest. He was taken to hospital, where his condition was described on Tuesday as serious but not life-threatening. He was also charged with murder and attempted murder.
Hollande, who is visiting the French overseas territory of Saint Pierre et Miquelon, an island in the Atlantic, had ordered Valls to organise the emergency meeting of the interior, justice, defence and social affairs ministers. They were joined by the chiefs of the gendarmerie and national police service. Investigators said they found a notebook containing “confused ramblings” suggesting he had psychological difficulties. The assailant had a criminal record for theft in 2006 and vandalising a vehicle in 2008, according to police sources.
Hollande told reporters: “We cannot give in to panic, to confusion, to fear.” France’s authorities say there appears to be no connection between the three attacks, and only one has been linked to a suspected Islamist fundamentalist.
“We cannot speak of an act of terrorism,” Brigitte Lamy, the Nantes public prosecutor, said of the attack on the Christmas market. “It appears to be an isolated case.” She added that there had been no religious or other claims made. “We need to verify this, but it appears to be the same kind of attack as that which took place in Dijon.”
Valls and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve went to Nantes on Tuesday afternoon to “support the victims”.
Hollande, who is on a foreign visit to the French overseas territory of Saint-Pierre-et Miquelon, an Atlantic island off the coast of Canada, had ordered Valls to organise the emergency meeting of the interior, justice, defence and social affairs ministers. They were joined by the chiefs of the gendarmerie and national police service.
Speaking from Saint-Pierre-et Miquelon, Hollande told reporters: “We cannot give in to panic, to confusion to fear.”