As the gendarmes intervened to arrest a man, an explosion blew them away. Very unfavorably known to the justice services, the man they intended to arrest is dead.
A violent explosion in a house at a place called Les Palissards, in the Allier, left six injured and one dead this Wednesday around 1:00 p.m., BFMTV learned from a police source. The six wounded are gendarmes who were dispatched to the home of a man – very unfavorably known to the justice services – to arrest him. For several days, the latter had been making calls and making death threats, in particular against an agent of the prison integration and probation service (SPIP).
At the request of the Cusset prosecutor’s office, three agents from the Vichy gendarmerie surveillance and intervention platoon (PSIG) and four gendarmes from the Mayet-de-Montagne territorial brigade therefore showed up at the individual’s home. The latter went home, forcing the PSIG soldiers to enter the house.
The vital prognosis of one of the gendarmes engaged
“The gendarmes arrested the respondent and then noticed a very strong smell of gasoline. A violent explosion followed, setting the house ablaze,” said the Allier prefecture in a press release.
The gendarmes of the territorial brigade managed to extract the three soldiers of the PSIG, blasted and seriously burned. Two of them were airlifted in serious condition to the Lyon hospital center, specializing in severe burns, indicates the prefecture. The vital prognosis of one of them is engaged, according to our information.
“The third gendarme, more slightly injured, was transported to the Clermont-Ferrand hospital center. The three other gendarmes who intervened to extract their comrades from the house were more slightly injured”, adds the prefecture.
The suspect they were supposed to arrest died in the blast. Once there, the firefighters discovered his lifeless body and extracted him from the house.
