Police Reinforce Presence After Consecutive Nights of Urban Violence in Cholet

For the second night in a row, urban violence erupted in the Jean Monnet district of Cholet, as confirmed by the Maine-et-Loire prefecture on Saturday. Fortunately, no injuries were reported. Over the night from Friday to Saturday, around twenty masked individuals set several vehicles on fire between 1 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., and again later in the night.

During their intervention, police and firefighters were targeted with projectiles. To ensure the safety of the firefighters, the police had to use force to disperse the perpetrators, according to the prefecture. A union source stated that six cars were burned, and approximately thirty hooded young people took part in the violence.

This incident followed another night of unrest from Thursday to Friday in the same district. Fireworks were set off by several individuals in the early evening, and by 9:30 p.m., municipal and national police faced stone-throwing from about forty individuals. Responding to a fire in an abandoned building, firefighters and police were again targeted with projectiles.

Prefect Philippe Chopin announced that the national police presence had been reinforced since Friday to restore order and tranquility in the Jean Monnet district. Cholet's mayor, Gilles Bourdouleix, suggested that this violence might be linked to the anniversary of the Nahel affair and the subsequent riots, indicating that certain groups might be sending a message. He noted that around 30 to 40 young people, mostly minors, were causing trouble, but the unrest was confined to this neighborhood without external spillovers.