In the early morning hours of last Thursday, a group of armed and masked assailants attacked a Roma camp in the Parisian suburb of Triel-sur-Seine. Police are said to be conducting an intensive search for the attackers. The men got into the camp by driving a car with a flashing light on the roof and forced their way into one of the caravans, where they fired shots into the air and threatened the residents. They left the scene of the crime after about a half an hour.
French media report that witnesses said the attackers arrived around 2 AM in a car with a siren and were dressed as police officers. Carrying nightsticks and pistols, they broke down the doors to several caravans and started harassing their Roma occupants. One woman was forced to strip entirely. The perpetrators allegedly also robbed the Roma present of their personal documents.
"The families will never forget this. The worst part is they have no documents now," an aid worker to the Roma told the French media.
About 30 Roma families have lived in the suburb for years and are being threatened with eviction from the privately owned land where they are camped. They have been in the process of requesting another appropriate campsite with access to running water from the local authorities for some time.
Czech Press Agency, translated by Gwendolyn Albert
ROMEA
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