“I had a friend tell me that, it’s crazy. » Sitting on concrete benches, a handful of regulars at the Alan-Turing square (13th century) pondered the events that disturbed the tranquility of the neighborhood just a stone’s throw from François-Mitterrand’s library, this Friday evening. Shortly before 9 p.m., a child, according to police sources, about ten years old, was forced into a car as he was at the corner of Passage Chanvin and Rue Chevaleret.
Currently, the tobacco shop located right on the corner of the two streets is closed. On the other hand, the magnificent Italian food court La Felicita, located in an old railway hall, is full of customers. Maybe it was two of them who raised the alarm. It’s true, two witnesses contacted the police after witnessing this real scene: four men grabbed a child to lock him in the trunk of a BMW. The information was confirmed this Sunday by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
“My colleague working on Friday night didn’t see anything”
According to their statement, the car then fled from rue du Chevaleret. “The police came to see us to ask if we had any video surveillance images,” said a shopkeeper. The sequence may only last a few seconds. “My colleagues who were working on Friday night didn’t see anything,” continued the young woman, whose sign was still at the intersection. From here, it takes less than ten minutes by car to reach the Porte d’Ivry ring road, an ideal configuration for a quick escape.
In this district where many offices are concentrated, we were stunned to hear this news. “Can I have the information? Because I myself have two children…” complained a mother who lives several tens of meters from the location of the alleged kidnapping.
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Who are these people? What is their relationship with this child? There are many questions two days after this kidnapping. “No minors have been reported missing,” the Paris prosecutor’s office said Sunday afternoon.
Famous car owners with “similar facts”
When the two witnesses noted down the vehicle’s license plate, investigators were able to trace it to its owner. According to police sources, it was a man known for carrying out “similar acts”, without further details.
“No minors were found at the address of the STNK holder,” said the public prosecutor, without specifying whether the owner of the vehicle was subject to police detention. The minors protection brigade was arrested in this investigation.
