The author of a shot in the Annecy-Paris TGV on Thursday, who had been arrested after being overpowered by a plainclothes policeman, was indicted and remanded in custody this Saturday, said the Chalon prosecutor’s office. -sur-Saone.
Presented on Saturday before an examining magistrate, within the framework of the judicial investigation opened in particular for “attempted murder of a person holding public authority”, this man of foreign nationality “kept silent”, specified the prosecution. . He did not give details of the nationality and profile of this man.
A fight with a policeman
The facts occurred at midday Thursday near Le Creusot (Saône-et-Loire) when the TGV was launched at full speed, scaring the passengers. While the man had just broken a window with a window-breaking hammer – and had his hands full of blood according to a witness – the controllers, “given the obvious danger of the situation” and “not managing to control the individual”, called “a police officer in civilian clothes, armed with his weapon, present on board the train”, had indicated the deputy prosecutor, Angélique Depetris.
Despite the presence of the policeman with his armband, the man remained “uncontrollable”: the policeman then proceeded “in vain with the usual warnings”, but the individual threw himself on him and succeeded during the brawl to seize his gun, yet stored, and “chamber it”, she had specified.
The policeman was able to “keep the weapon towards the ground”, but, “during the fight, a blow went off, lodged by chance in the ground, had added the deputy prosecutor in a press release. “With the help of a few passengers”, the policeman had finally “managed to control the aggressor”.
“We escaped a disaster”
This had been handed over to the gendarmes at the Montchanin-Le Creusot TGV station. A switchblade knife was found in his pocket.
When the policeman tried to subdue the man with a passenger, “it was screaming. We all slept between the seats, because we were afraid that he would enter the car, he was less than ten meters away, ”said a passenger, Stéphanie Debord, to AFP.
“They asked for belts from people who had them on them, we gave them three, four belts to try to control it but it was very complicated, even if it was not thick”. Thanks to the intervention in particular of the policeman and a passenger, a member of the SNCF, “we escaped a disaster”, she explained.