A gang that carried out a brutal knife attack on a French village’s winter ball, killing one teenager and wounding 17, told guests “we’re here to stab white people” before the rampage, according to a report.
The 16-year-old high school student, identified only as Thomas, was stabbed to death over the weekend when a group of outsiders stormed into a festive crowd of around 400 people who had gathered for a dance party in Crepol in the southwestern Drome region village hall.
He died on the way to the hospital and eight others were injured, two of them seriously.
Far-right activists have posted videos online that they say were filmed during the dance, claiming they would allow two of the attackers to be identified. A video circulating on social media shows several people involved in an argument at night.
The authenticity of the videos has not been verified.
“We are here to stab white people,” one of the attackers, dressed in overalls and sneakers, is said to have shouted, according to a statement in the local newspaper Le Dauphiné libéré.
The 16-year-old high school student was stabbed to death over the weekend when a group of outsiders descended on a festive crowd gathered for a dance party at a community center in France
The incident occurred in Crepol, in the southwest Drome region
The killing sparked shock and political controversy in France, with far-right extremists today branding the attack as racism against whites.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told parliament that seven people had been arrested and investigators were now determining whether they were behind “this heinous crime.”
A source familiar with the case, who did not want to be named, told AFP that the suspected killer was among seven people arrested in raids by 50 elite gendarmes around the city of Toulouse, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) away became GIGN unit.
Even before the arrests, right-wing extremist politicians had blamed young people with a migrant background from social housing for the attack, even if the police have not yet provided any information about the identities of those arrested.
“Now anti-white racism is gripping our country,” said Marion Marechal, the leading candidate of the far-right party Reconquete! Party of former presidential candidate Eric Zemmour in next year’s European elections, claims on X, formerly Twitter.
Marine Le Pen, figurehead of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party and former presidential candidate, claimed in an interview with the weekly newspaper Valeurs Actuelles that “armed militias” had organized “raids”.
Zemmour, also on X, claimed: “Our martyrs are innocent victims of the war of civilizations.”
Gendarmerie spokeswoman Marie-Laure Pezan said today that the weekend incident was “marked by violence that is quite incredible for a village of 500 inhabitants.”
Josette Place, a pensioner and member of the village’s events committee, told AFP: “It wasn’t a fight, it was an attack.”
Armed with knives and concrete blocks, “they came with the intent to kill,” she said of the attackers.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, about ten young people tried to break into the dance hall in the village of Crepol on Saturday evening. One stabbed a security guard who stood in their way.
The dance guests rushed to help and a fight broke out outside the building in which Thomas was fatally stabbed.
Far-right activists called for a silent march on Wednesday in Romans-sur-Isere, where Thomas’ high school is located, using hashtags such as #francocide, #Francaisreveillezvous (France wakes up) and #Racaille (thugs) in their online posts.
Meanwhile, southwest of Paris on Friday, a gardener named Mourad was attacked with a craft knife by a 75-year-old man who shouted racist insults and was later arrested.
Referring to the murder of Thomas and the attack on Mourad, French far-left MP Francois Ruffin spoke out against a “difficult atmosphere” in the media and social networks, “as if one had to take sides”.
“Let us all be bulwarks against these decisions and remain humane,” Ruffin wrote on X.