Around twenty “jeunes” forced a TGV (High-speed train) to stop on Saturday when it was leaving Marseilles heading towards Nice, and tried to board it before taking flight when the police arrived.
Five “jeunes” from a housing estate in the city’s 11th arrondissement were arrested and detained by the local police. Passengers in the train who warned police after seeing the attackers through the window reported that they had weapons but the police did not recover any, according to a source close to the inquiry.
Having left Paris, the TGV had just departed the station Saint-Charles in Marseilles, shortly after 2 pm, when its driver was forced to stop by torches placed on the track in the La Pomme district, in the direction of Aubagne.
“These red burning torches are a safety tool that is used ordinarily to signal a major problem and this case the drivers have orders to stop,” explained a spokesman from the regional office of the SNCF [transport company] in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
The police were notified immediately and the attackers took flight on foot when they arrived. Five of them were arrested. The train, whose doors were locked, suffered slight damage and left shortly before 4 pm, according to these same sources.
