Charles Guyard / Photo credits: XOSE BOUZAS / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
A little before the start of Saturday evening’s Ligue 1 match Nantes – OGC Nice, supporters of the Riviera club got into VTC cars. They were targeted by Nantes supporters, some believed to belong to the Loire Brigade, one of the main local supporters groups. Maxime, 31, was stabbed to death by one of the drivers who has since gone to the police.
“A pack of 300 coming towards me”
In the car driven by David, the atmosphere is in full swing. Six Nice supporters took their seats. “They had their down jackets and underneath, they had their jerseys, they were festive.” Head to the La Beaujoire stadium for the match against FC Nantes. David is at the head of a small convoy of five or six other VTCs, all filled with fans of the Riviera club, there are around thirty in total. It’s 7:48 p.m. and in less than a minute, the evening changes a few hundred meters from the stadium.
“That’s when I see a pack of 300 coming towards me, smashing the car and trying to open the doors. And they hit, they hit. I have a tear gas canister and a baton, I didn’t have the time to use it”, explains this driver at the microphone of Europe 1. “Behind, I saw my other VTC colleagues, they were being attacked too”. In this ambush, one of the drivers then grabs a sharp object and aims Maxime in the back who collapses, fatally injured. He was 31 years old.
“There was also a breach of security”
“Who is going to carry the weight of the death on their shoulders? Ok, there is a victim. Wouldn’t we have protected our clients? David asks. “Does that mean we let the 30 young people get smashed? How do they get back there, in coffins in Nice? There wasn’t even a CRS brigade. I think there was also a lack of security.”
On Sunday morning, the alleged perpetrator of the fatal blow was taken into police custody as part of an investigation into intentional homicide.