Strasbourg

Why voters in one corner of France are quietly turning their back on politics

France — Report

The Bas-Rhin département or county in north-east France, which borders Germany, is dominated politically by the Right and far-right. Mediapart visited the region to test the mood on the ground and found that more and more local people, and especially those in rural areas, are choosing to abstain from voting. Quietly, and with no fanfare, swathes of people in this area are saying a discreet farewell to the world of politics. Mathilde Goanec reports from the towns of Drusenheim and Haguenau.

Council funding of Strasbourg mosque provokes row with French interior minister

France — Investigation

Councillors in Strasbourg have just voted through a 2.5 million euro grant to help build a new mosque in the city in north-east France, a region where unlike the rest of the country the law permits local authorities to fund religious buildings. However, the move by the Green-run council immediately attracted the ire of France's interior minister Gérald Darmanin because the group behind the mosque, Confédération Islamique Milli Görüs (CIMG), is a Franco-Turkish association which has refused to sign the government's new “charter of principles” for Islam in France. The minister, who is championing the government's new law against 'separatism', is now threatening legal action. Report by Guillaume Krempp and Jean-François Gérard of Mediapart's partners in the city, Rue 89 Strasbourg.

High-speed TGV train derails in eastern France

France — Link

The driver of the train was badly hurt and at least 21 people were hurt in all.

French police and yellow vests protesters clash in Strasbourg

France — Link

Protesters back on French streets two days after president set out proposals including tax cuts worth around €5billion in response to protests.

Strasbourg attack suspect 'pledged allegiance to Islamic State'

France — Link

Cherif Chekat, 29, the chief suspect in the shooting attack on the streets of Strasbourg, eastern France, which left five people dead and another 12 wounded, and who was shot dead by police shortly afterwards, had left a recent pledge of allegiance to the so-called Islamic State group on a computer memory stick, judicial officials have confirmed.

Fifth person wounded in Strasbourg shooting dies

France — Link

A fifth person has died from wounds sustained in the gun attacks last Tuesday on the streets of Strasbourg, eastern France, when local man Cherif Chekatt, 29, who the so-called Islamic State group said acted in its name, shot a total of 16 people.

Jewish tombs and Holocaust memorial near Strasbourg vandalised

France — Link

A Jewish cemetery's tombstones and Holocaust memorial were this week daubed with painted swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti at Herrlisheim, in eastern France, about 20 kilometres from Strasbourg where a gunman left four dead and 12 others wounded on Tueday in an attack claimed by the so-called Islamic State group.

French government urges no Yellow Vest protests on Saturday

France — Link

French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux on Thursday called on the so-called Yellow Vest movement demanding better living standards for low- and midlle income earners not to hold another weekend of protests because of the strain placed on police and security forces after this week's terrorist attack in Strasbourg.

French police shoot dead Strasbourg attack fugitive

France — Link

A massive manhunt for Cherif Chekatt, the chief suspect in the Tuesday evening shooting spree on the streets of Strasbourg, which left three people dead and 13 others wounded, including one who is described as brain-dead, ended on Thursday evening when the 29-year-old died in a firefight with police in the eastern French city.  

Foreign nationals among dead and wounded in Strasbourg attack

International — Link

A Thai tourist was among two people killed and an Italian journalist and a garagist of Afghan origin were reported to be among the 13 others wounded in a shooting spree on the streets of Strasbourg on Tuesday evening when a gunman, apparently acting alone and who witnesses say shouted "god is greater" in Arabic, succeeded in escaping the scene.   

Trump cites France shootings in call for more US border security

International — Link

In a message he posted on Twitter on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump, currently battling for approval of a budget to beef up immigration barriers with a wall on the US border with Mexico, cited the terrorist shooting spree on Tuesday in Strasbourg to justify a clampdown on migrants, apparently ignorant of the fact that the suspect in the attack was born in the the eastern French city.

Strasbourg shooting suspect 'radicalized in jail'

France — Link

Chérif Chekatt, the 29-year-old Strasbourg-born man currently wanted as the chief suspect for the deadly street shooting spree in the city on Tuesday evening when two people were killed and 13 others wounded, had served prison sentences for 27 different convictions in France, Germany and Switzerland, notably for armed robbery and assault, and was, according to the French interior ministry, drawn to radical Islamic circles while in jail. 

Massive manhunt in eastern France for Strasbourg gunman

France — Link

More than 700 French police and security personnel are involved in the search for a 29-year-old man, who had been monitered by internal intelligence services as a potential terrorist risk, after two people were killed and 13 others wounded, one of who was left brain-dead, in a shooting on Tuesday evening the streets of the eastern city of Strasbourg.

Update: Strasbourg gunman escapes after three dead, 12 wounded

France — Link

A gunman identified on CCTV footage, and reportedly known to French internal intelligence services as a supporter of radical Islamic movements, has evaded arrest after three people were shot dead and at least 12 others wounded on the streets of the city of Strasbourg in eastern France, when an army security patrol wounded the 29-year-old before his escape.

Several injured in blast at grain silo in Strasbourg

France — Link

A grain silo in the eastern French city of Strasbourg with a storage capacity of 400,000 tonnes was wrecked by an apparently accidental explosion early on Wednesday which left at least three people seriously injured.