An investigation was opened after the start, on the night of Friday to Saturday, of an intrusion alert and a fire going on in a Parisian brasserie prized by President Emmanuel Macron, we learned from the prosecution and the Paris police headquarters.
Around 5:00 am, an intrusion alert went off in the brasserie “La Rotonde”, in the Montparnasse district of Paris. When they arrived, the police discovered a fire had started on the closed terrace. The fire was quickly contained, said the prefecture of police.
About “10m2 were burned” and the fire was put out “by means of a lance,” said a spokesman for the Paris fire brigade.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office confirmed that an investigation, entrusted to the territorial security of Paris, had been opened to determine the causes of the fire.
“The first investigations are oriented towards the hypothesis of a voluntary act,” said a source close to the file.
In support of this track, the central laboratory of the prefecture found traces of oil on the scene, according to judicial sources and close to the investigation.
“Considerable damage”
A yellow vest was found “near the scene but without a link being established at this stage with the fire”, according to one of these sources.
The intruders “broke a window from the terrace on the ground floor” and then set fire to, told AFP Serge Tafanel, co-manager of the brewery.
“The damage is considerable. We will not be able to open for several days, even weeks,” he said.
He added that a previous fire attempt had failed on January 9 outside the establishment.
“Inadmissible degradation of #LaRotonde, all my support for the teams. Thank you to @PompiersParis who intervened quickly”, reacted on Twitter the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, candidate for her re-election.
His opponent The Republicans, Rachida Dati said for his part “indignant to see #LaRotonde burned and concerned about the escalation and the radicalism of the violence which is spreading in our country”
Between the two presidential rounds, Emmanuel Macron had organized a dinner in this brasserie where he had his habits, with his supporters and friends to celebrate his qualification in the second round against Marine Le Pen.
This dinner had earned him a volley of criticism.
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