The smell of charred plastic still floated Tuesday evening, rue Eugène-Manuel, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. On the ground, the soot and pieces of melted sheet metal topped with a police banner indicate the scale of the the fire which took place here on the night of Monday to Tuesday, devastating a dozen cars as well as several two-wheelers.
The day after the events, this small, quiet street in the Muette district, not far from the Passy metro station, had become the subject of all conversations. Motorists stop in the middle of the street to observe the damage and passers-by look at the rubble and the completely blackened facade of a building. “But this is crazy, what happened here? » asks a couple as they approach the last wrecked car present at the crime scene.
Around 1:30 a.m., residents of the street, like Laurent, were awakened by “explosion” noises. From his window, he observes the fire which consumes several vehicles parked alongside the neighboring building. “Firefighters arrived fairly quickly but struggled to contain the fire at first. We had to wait for the arrival of a second truck for the flames to be extinguished,” he says.
The mayor of the 16th century, Jérôme Redler, was immediately informed of the situation by his district police station. “Fortunately, no casualties have been reported. An investigation has been opened to determine the causes of this fire, but the criminal trail is favored,” declares the elected official.
A note left by the perpetrator
Indeed, a man allegedly set fire to a first car before the flames spread to vehicles parked alongside. According to a note left by the police on the building opposite, the alleged perpetrator has since been arrested by the police.
“The police initially believed an anti-Semitic act because the man left a message with several names of lawyers and doctors of Jewish origin,” says Laurent. According to information from TF1, the culprit wrote the following message: “All murderers and criminal crooks, I have been their victim for four years, the neighborhood residents, you are witnesses, it will be more serious soon”.
“This is not the first time this man has tried to set a fire, it already happened about four months ago. The residents of the building were aware and se barricaded since,” contextualizes Laurent. According to the latter, it would be revenge against a legal expert who works in this street. “He would not have received the compensation and insurance he requested after an accident,” he specifies.
The investigations of the investigation were entrusted to the 16th arrondissement police station, confirms Jérôme Redler.
