Two separate investigations were opened on Sunday by the Saint-Etienne public prosecutor’s office: one for violence with weapons in a meeting with premeditation, the other for degradation in a meeting with weapons.
The first concerns the “heavy projectiles” “probably” launched from a bridge on the A47 motorway, near Saint-Etienne, on the eight coaches of Olympique de Marseille supporters returning from Clermont, according to a press release from the Loire prefecture. It was then 1:30 a.m. in the night from Saturday to Sunday, a few hours after OM’s victory in Auvergne (5-1) in Ligue 1.
Supporters with baseball bats
The second investigation aims for “retaliation”: “Marseille supporters then got out of the buses and damaged a vehicle, injuring its driver, before leaving,” according to the press release.
This motorist was injured in the face and transported by firefighters to the Saint-Etienne University Hospital, said police sources, who reported that a “large number” of supporters had gotten off the buses, some armed with baseball bats.
When they arrived, the police found pieces of rubble, mortars and broken windows, but the coaches had left. The police caught up with them further away, carried out identity checks but did not make any arrests at this stage, according to another police source.
In his press release, the prefect of the Loire, Alexandre Rochatte “deplores and condemns with the greatest firmness the violence and degradation”, described as “unacceptable” and which “could have had dramatic consequences”.