The events took place on Friday. In the early afternoon, several hooded individuals, armed with a sledgehammer, a tear gas canister and a handgun burst into a house in the town of Gauchy, in Aisne.
According to a press release from the judicial police sent to AFP, these individuals seized “by force” a 7-year-old child in the presence of his mother and members of his family, before fleeing with a vehicle. “The first elements of the investigation suggested that the father of the child (aged 27 and known to the police) was among the kidnappers,” the statement continued.
He was driving south
The deployment of an “important search device” and technical checks finally enabled the police to locate one of the vehicles involved on the A6 motorway, where it was traveling in a southerly direction. This vehicle was intercepted at the Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône) tollbooth, near Lyon, around 8:30 p.m. The Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) of Dijon and Lyon then released the child “safe and sound” and arrested his father as well as three alleged accomplices.
Aged 27 to 36 and living in Marseille, the four respondents are all known to the police. They were remanded in custody. “The child was returned to his mother on July 8 in the evening,” said the judicial police.