On New Year’s Eve all over France unknown persons set fire to 861 cars, reports radio station Europe 1 citing the classified data of the country’s police and gendarmerie.
A year ago, 1457 arson attacks were registered, a record in history. This time law enforcement did not indicate the number of burned-out cars in the list of incidents following the celebration of the New year.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanen demanded that the prefects close the data at the local level in order to avoid any hint of competition on the number of such crimes among youth groups. The tradition of setting fire to cars on the night of January 1 in the republic for many years, but the authorities still cannot do anything about it.
Since January 1, 15 French departments tightened restrictions. From now on, the curfew begins at 18:00. Government spokesman Gabriel Attal explained that the experiment will last a week, after which the authorities will study its result.
In Russia, a significant number of incidents during the New Year holidays are associated with pyrotechnics. This year the fire started in the Sochi forest near the village of Verkhniy Yurt. The forest floor burned for an area of 500 square meters.