This footage shows French police officers fleeing in a damaged vehicle as yobs in the Paris suburbs throw Molotov cocktails at it after one of the youths allegedly fired a gun at the officers.
The incident took place in the social housing neighbourhood of Tarterets, in the Corbeil-Essonnes commune, in the Ile-de-France region, on the outskirts of the French capital Paris, yesterday evening (Wednesday 8th September).
The footage, which was shared by a police union on social media, shows a police van with a broken door being attacked by what appears to be a group of yobs.
They can be heard shouting and appear to be throwing rocks at the police van before one of them throws what appears to be a Molotov cocktail at the police officers as a huge flame erupts.
The van can be seen reversing as the police officers attempt to flee the mob. The attackers can then be seen running after the police van while it drives away, as smoke can be seen slowly rising off the ground.
The incident reportedly started when patrolling police officers spotted between 30 and 50 youths in a park while out on a routine patrol.
As soon as the youths noticed police, they reportedly ran towards them, one of them even brandishing and firing a firearm, according to French TV channel BFM TV.
According to the Alliance 91 police union that shared the footage on social media, the youths ran towards the police officers in order to “remove them from their vehicle”.
The cops then reportedly opened the sliding side door of their van to deploy smoke grenades against the youths, as the van reverses.
But the sliding side door got caught on two cars that the police damaged while they were reversing.
The sliding door then reportedly broke, according to BFM TV, or, according to Actu 17, it was damaged by the youths as they attempted to remove the police officers from the van.
The police attempt to flee the scene as explosion noises and insults can be heard.
The youths threw a total of three Molotov cocktails at the police van, according to BFM TV, with at least one of them landing on the van bonnet.
No injuries were reported. The incident took place after two brothers were arrested in the neighbourhood on 2nd September for illegal street racing, and this triggered days of violence and rioting in the area.
The situation was exacerbated after footage emerged on social media apparently showing police officers tear gassing the mother of one of the suspects.
