The two arrested for the fire at the Limoges town hall enter prison

The two men arrested for their alleged participation in the fire of the Limoges City Hall during the riots that accompanied the protests against the rising cost of living in France last Saturday have been charged and have been placed in preventive detention, the Prosecutor's Office reported.

The suspects, aged 34 and 66, are being investigated in an open judicial case, among other crimes, for attempted murder against a police officer and destruction of the municipal building, although the Limoges prosecutor, Emilie Abrantes, did not specify the exact charges attributed to each one.

The first suspect, a 34-year-old man from the Creuse department, was arrested on Tuesday, October 20, in Bussière-Boffy, in the Haute-Vienne department, with the support of the elite French police unit RAID.

This temporary worker in the construction sector and environmental defender appears in police records for his alleged links with the radical ultra-left and was convicted for an episode of violence against an officer during a previous demonstration in Creuse, according to the authorities.

The second suspect, 66 years old, was arrested on Thursday, October 22, in Gentioux-Pigerolles, a town located in the same department.

Limoges Town Hall, a historic building opened in 1883, was severely damaged by last week's fire. Videos broadcast by the local newspaper Le Populaire du Center show individuals breaking windows and forcing the door of the town hall before entering and setting fire to its interior.

The mayor of Limoges, Guillaume Guérin, of the conservative Republican party, on Tuesday described the 34-year-old suspect as the probable mastermind of the operation and accused sectors of the ultra-left of being behind the criminal act.

Guérin pointed in particular to activists based on the Millevaches plateau, a rural area of ​​about 10,000 inhabitants located between the departments of Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne, known for decades for attracting environmentalist, anarchist and anti-capitalist communities.

The region has been the scene of other acts of sabotage claimed in the past, including fires of vehicles belonging to the electrical company Enedis, in Limoges, in 2020 and of a telecommunications antenna in Haute-Vienne in 2021.