Charles Guyard / Photo credit: Riccardo Milani / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP (illustration)
Friday morning, a sixty-year-old burst into the town hall of Bouguenais, south of Nantes, with a knife and tried to attack the mayor of the town, Sandra Impériale. The man was hospitalized. If the reasons for this act still remain unclear, the elected official hopes for a legal response.
The Bouguenais Town Hall experienced a big scare Friday morning. A man armed with a knife burst into the town hall of this town of around 20,000 inhabitants south of the Nantes metropolitan area, and tried to attack the mayor.
The scene happens very quickly. A man aged around sixty enters the town hall of Bouguenais, climbs the stairs then heads straight towards the office of the mayor, Sandra Impériale. “At that moment, the door opens, he looks at me and takes out his knife. We tried to hold the door and close it securely. I was afraid for the other people who were in the next room but It’s true that he was targeting the mayor,” explains the councilor.
The mayor hopes for a legal response
It was ultimately a collaborator of the elected official, Karl Simler, who, while controlling the individual, was lightly hit. “I grabbed him by the arm. There was another one who grabbed him. In the movement, there was probably a stab which slightly lacerated my arm. I think the denim jacket “Dampened things out. He stuttered a few words, but they didn’t make much sense,” he recalls.
The tragedy was therefore narrowly avoided. Even if the author was automatically hospitalized, the mayor hopes that this act will not go unanswered. “It’s important that the elucidation takes place because the mayors are also fed up with being attacked without there being any action. That won’t push people to come forward,” regrets Sandra Imperial. A psychological unit must be set up within the town hall.