Violence videos against Roms in Seine-Saint-Denis have appeared on social networks, after rumors, unfounded according to the prefecture, reporting abduction of children in the area.
20 people were arrested on the night of 25 March in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis after violence targeting Roma. The latter are designated by rumors on social networks as being at the origin of kidnappings, according to a police source quoted by AFP.
"Several brawls and violence" had been noted early in the evening on March 25 in the cities of Clichy-sous-Bois and Bobigny, according to this source, which nevertheless states that no one was injured in these localities. The 20 people arrested were placed in police custody.
This violence follows the proliferation, on social networks, of alarming messages evoking attempts to kidnap children or teenagers by people traveling in a van in several localities of Ile-de-France, especially the Hauts -de-Seine and Seine-Saint-Denis.
Evoking an "unfounded rumor", the police prefecture told AFP "that no kidnapping, in the Hauts-de-Seine or Seine-Saint-Denis" was "proven". The prefecture has also issued a tweet in this sense. "Following the sharing of this rumor on social networks, two people were unjustly accused and lynched," said the prefecture.
