Angry Farmers Cause “Serious Damage” in Nîmes Customs Office Fire

A fire, caused by angry farmers, caused “serious damage” to the Customs office in Nîmes in France on Friday evening, with “major damage to the building” and eight vehicles burned, we learned from the Gard prefecture.

Started at 7:15 p.m., the fire was “under control at 9:10 p.m.”, the firefighters told AFP who “engaged ten vehicles and around thirty personnel”, according to the prefecture.

According to the prefecture’s communications service, “eight light vehicles were set on fire within the premises of the Customs office by individuals who entered at the wheel of agricultural machinery”, which also caused “major damage to the building and destroyed the portal”.

At the start of the evening, the prefect of Gard had “condemned in the greatest firmness these serious damages”, specifying that “an investigation is underway to identify the perpetrators”.

Furthermore, still in Nîmes, around thirty people brandishing banners burst into the Antonins stadium around 8:15 p.m. which was hosting a National match between Nîmes Olympique and the Rouen Football Club. “The meeting was interrupted for 20 minutes,” said the prefecture.

Early Friday afternoon, in Narbonne, a building of the Mutualité sociale agricole (MSA) was set on fire on the sidelines of a farmers’ demonstration, an action described as “intolerable” by the president of the MSA Pascal Cormery.

After a week of blockages, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal promised on Friday an “agricultural surge” to face the deep anger of the countryside, emergency measures welcomed but considered insufficient to lift the mobilization by the majority union FNSEA.

2024-01-27 01:16:17
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