School fires investigated Metz, Salon and Poitiers

Oct 3

France 2 reports fires at schools in Metz, Salon-de-Provence and Poitiers. In Metz, staff cars, the courtyard and toilets burned around 10:30 p.m. the previous evening; no injuries are reported. A parent describes her son's distress and her own attachment to the school. Mayor François Grosdidier wants portable toilets if repairs cannot permit a rapid return to classes. The anchor suggests a possible connection to the school unrest, but Justine Wild explicitly says no link has yet been established for Metz and an investigation is open. The report gives more than 5,000 arrests amid the week's protests, with an 85-percent minor share in the Paris region. In Salon, it says intruders set a high-school fire around 7 a.m. that morning while residential staff were inside; Mayor Nicolas Isnard warns they could have been trapped and killed. The closing briefly reports burning projectiles in a Poitiers high-school courtyard and a 1 a.m. fire-service call.

France 2 reports that intruders entered a high school in Salon-de-Provence around 7 a.m. on October 3 and started a fire while staff living on the premises were inside. Mayor Nicolas Isnard says staff were alerted by explosions and could otherwise have died trapped in the building. The anchor includes this in a roundup of school fires under investigation and speculates about the surrounding unrest; the report establishes neither perpetrators' identities nor a common motive.