Mobilization of October 17: A branch of the Lyon tourist office ransacked and burned

A branch of the Lyon tourist office at Place Bellecour was ransacked and set on fire on Saturday on the sidelines of the movement against “the high cost of living”, noted an AFP journalist. The police also used a water cannon to disperse demonstrators who were shooting projectiles at the police and were at or near the entrance to the square.

“The police are undertaking maneuvers to disperse the violent groups” because “many hostile individuals are preventing the firefighters from safely intervening on the fire,” said the Rhône prefecture.

“The images are shocking, the demonstrators […] were put in danger”, reacted in a press release the environmentalist mayor of the city Grégory Doucet, saying “strongly condemn these unacceptable scenes of violence”. “Our public buildings are common property, vandalizing them is attacking the people of Lyon,” he added. He also sent his “support to the traders targeted” as well as to the police and firefighters.

The arson occurred on one side of Place Bellecour where groups of hooded young people were throwing projectiles and fireworks against the police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.

To evacuate the surroundings of the building and allow the firefighters to intervene, the police fired tear gas canisters, the smoke of which caused a movement of demonstrators on one side of the square. Several hundred people are on the bridge near the square, kept at bay by jets of tear gas grenades.

Since 2 p.m., several thousand people have gathered on Place Bellecour and around it, along the Rhône. No demonstration has been declared at the prefecture and the gathering is static.