Twelve people were arrested Sunday evening near the Paris-Vincennes administrative detention center, suspected of planning to commit violence, sources said Tuesday. According to several media reports, they were preparing to orchestrate an escape from the center, from which eleven people had already escaped on Christmas Day.
An administrative detention center is a closed and police-guarded facility that houses foreigners subject to deportation, awaiting their removal. The Paris-Vincennes center, located in the southeast of the capital (12th arrondissement), has 235 places.
According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the twelve individuals gathered “were arrested with their faces covered near the detention center, and a vehicle was found containing Molotov cocktail explosive devices.” According to a police source, these individuals were arrested “around 10 p.m. on Sunday night.”
The press has mentioned ultraleft activists.
Europe 1 stated that these twelve individuals were militants of “the radical left.” “One of them, of Italian origin and the initiator of the project, is on the S file,” the radio also stated.
The prosecutor’s office simply indicated that these twelve individuals had been placed “in custody for participation in a gathering with the intention of committing violence.” The custody for this type of offense lasts for a maximum of forty-eight hours and should end Tuesday evening, leading to a decision from the Paris prosecutor’s office on Wednesday.
Police prefect Laurent Nuñez had announced on December 26 a reinforcement of the security measures at the detention center, with increased personnel and cameras, after the escape of eleven people on Christmas Day, and a first escape attempt accompanied by a fire on Saturday, December 23.
