Clashes broke out between residents of a troubled neighborhood in the French city of Beziers and the police, Agence France-Presse reported, quoted by BTA.
The neighborhood where the scene took place last night is affected by drug trafficking.
According to the police, rioters from the neighborhood filed a false alarm to the fire department about a fire in a garbage container. When the firefighters arrived at the scene, they came across about 50 people ready to fight them. The firefighters called the police. Police arrived on the scene and a street fight broke out. During it, the rioters threw rocks at the police and one of them ended up in a nearby apartment, which caught fire and burned completely. A woman and her three grown children lived in the 130-square-meter apartment. The residents of the apartment building were evacuated due to the fire. One police officer was injured in the clashes.
They followed riots in the French city of Limoges on Friday night, in which 10 police officers were injured.
According to local prosecutor Raphael Balan, the clashes in Beziers were probably linked to an operation against drug traffickers that led to the seizure of a large quantity of drugs in the same neighborhood a few days ago.