Written by: Basant El-Farmawy
A seventeen-year-old French girl lost the sight in her left eye as a result of being directly hit by a tear gas canister fired by police forces in the city of Mulhouse in the Alsace region, against the backdrop of widespread protests witnessed in several French cities last weekend condemning the deterioration of public education conditions, the rise in the cost of living, and violence associated with law enforcement operations.
The public prosecutor's office in the city of Mulhouse, located in the Haut-Rhin department, announced that the General Inspectorate of the National Police has taken over the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident, which resulted in a severe injury leading to the permanent loss of vision in the victim's left eye, following her receiving first aid from firefighting teams and being rushed to receive necessary treatment at the hospital.
Circumstances of the Security Intervention in Mulhouse
The unfortunate events took place last Saturday around the train station during a peaceful demonstration in which about a thousand people participated, before things took a turn when a group of about four hundred people headed towards the building in an attempt to storm it, which prompted the intervention of security forces and the imposition of a cordon using tear gas with the aim of protecting travelers, replecting attempts to target neighboring stores, and confronting the launch of fireworks.
It is worth noting that this incident represents the third intervention of its kind by the General Inspectorate of the National Police during the same day, after monitoring other cases that included the amputation of a demonstrator's hand in the city of Saint-Etienne and a severe head injury suffered by another participant in the capital, Paris, amid official expectations that the investigations will be complex due to the density of participating crowds and the difficult field conditions for law enforcement operations.
