British partygoers present at mass rave in France that turned violent

A DJ plays music during the party in a disused hangar in Lieuron 

Credit: AFP

Britons were among those present at a mass New Year’s Eve rave in France that led to clashes with police enforcing lockdown rules, it was claimed today.

More than 2,500 partygoers gathered to attend an illegal rave at a warehouse in Lieuron in Brittany, which went ahead on New Year’s Eve in defiance of a nationwide 8pm curfew.

When police tried to intervene, they "faced fierce hostility from many partygoers", who set one of their cars on fire and threw bottles and stones, according to the local prefecture.  The party continued throughout the night and all of Friday, with music only being finally switched off on Saturday morning, when a few hundred revellers had yet to depart.

Participants interviewed by the AFP news agency declined to be identified but said that the revellers had included partygoers from both Britain and Spain. It was not clear whether the Britons said to have been at the party had travelled direct to France or were already resident there. Current Covid restrictions forbid Britons from travelling to France for non-essential reasons.

French police set up road cordons near  the party

Credit: AFP

One participant, who gave his name as Jo from the Alsace region of eastern France and refused to be identified further, said the partygoers had met at a designated spot Thursday evening in the parking lot of a shopping centre. The convoy headed for Lieuron, where the police tried to prevent them from passing, he said.

He acknowledged that "very few had respected social distancing" at the event. Interior ministry spokeswoman Camille Chaize said there had been "great hostility, great violence" against the police at the party. Officers also gave verbal warnings to party-goers as they left.

French prosecutors have now opened an investigation into the illegal organisation of a musical gathering and premeditated violence against persons in authority.

French Gendarmes break up the rave at Lieuron 

Credit: AFP

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that 132,000 police had been deployed across France for the New Year celebrations to ensure security and that the curfew was mostly respected.

In the southern city of Marseille, meanwhile, security forces halted an illegal party grouping some 300 people, police said. More than 150 people were warned, and the three suspected organisers have been arrested.