A driver carrying passengers in an unmarked vehicle (TVDE) was arrested by police on Saturday over the murder of a Nantes fan ahead of a French league match, Gallic authorities said this Sunday.
“Continuing on the first investigations carried out at night, a TVDE driver visited the Nantes police station at 3:30 am [hora de Lisboa]and was taken into custody to face charges of intentional murder,” revealed Nantes prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul, specifying that he is a 35-year-old man.
According to Gaudeul, “just before 8 p.m.” [19:00 em Lisboa]several TVDE vehicles carrying Nice fans were attacked by Nantes fans while on their way to the Nantes stadium.
“During these events, under circumstances yet to be determined, a 31-year-old man, a Nantes fan, fainted” and “died on the spot”, “despite the quick intervention of the emergency services”, the same source emphasized.
According to the prosecutor, “the first forensic examination shows that the victim has a wound on his back, which could correspond to a sharp weapon”, and according to a witness cited by the French news agency AFP, the victim belonged to the brigade. Cheerleader from the Loire.
The local newspaper Presse Océan collected the testimony of one of the drivers who was part of the TVDE ‘train’ carrying Nice fans, who stated anonymously that he had been attacked but that he was not a direct witness to the murder.
“We were on a ‘train’ [duas carrinhas e seis outros carros] to leave thirty Nice fans in the stadium while a horde of hooded fans dressed in black or yellow and green [as cores do Nantes] appeared and attacked us,” he told the newspaper.
He added: “They started opening the doors and beating my customers in. I rolled down the window and asked them to stop. A man kicked in my door. He came back, punched my windshield (… ) And all my other colleagues were also attacked.”
Nantes and French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra expressed their “pain” and offered their condolences to the family and friends of the deceased fan, as well as to the French Professional Football League (LFP).
Nantes won the Ligue 1 14th round challenge against Nice 1-0 and are in eighth place with 18 points, while their opponents are second with 29, four points less than leaders Paris Saint-Germain, who with 2-0 win today to Le Havre.
Source: DN
