More than a hundred police officers were mobilized in Nîmes following an anonymous call. Around 4:20 p.m., a man called the police station with a hidden number, explaining that he was holding hostage two teenagers aged 14 and 18, rue Léo-Larguier. He said he was going to cut their throats in the name of Daesh.
A threat taken very seriously by the police who cordoned off the Jonquilles and Haute-Magaille districts for two hours. Warned by text messages, parents of students from two schools were asked to leave their children confined. A hundred national and municipal police officers as well as Raid forces, coming from Montpellier, then crisscrossed the two districts of the Gard prefecture.
The author of the hoax faces up to five years in prison
The alert was finally lifted shortly before 6:10 p.m. According to the public prosecutor of Nîmes, the penalties incurred for the authors of the hoax can be very heavy. The offense of slanderous denunciation is punishable by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros.