Marseille prosecutor investigates bus attack and town-hall fire after unrest

Prosecutors in Marseille are investigating attacks on a CRS riot-police bus and the city's town hall during the unrest that followed France's Saturday's demonstrations, according to BFMTV. The prosecutor said investigators wanted to identify those who organised the acts of violence.

No arrests had yet been announced in the specific investigation described by the prosecutor, BFMTV reported. That should not be confused with the broader number of people detained during the city's riots, which involved separate allegations of looting and vandalism.

Masked individuals entered the town hall during the demonstrations, damaging windows and furnishings, according to reporting by Le Parisien and Le Monde. Mayor Benoît Payan condemned the intrusion and called for an explanation of the police deployment around municipal premises.

Police also dealt with attacks on public-order personnel and businesses in the city centre. The prosecutor's comments concerned efforts to identify the perpetrators and those who may have directed them; they did not establish the involvement of any particular organisation.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez later met Marseille's mayor and announced that more officers would be deployed for a subsequent planned demonstration, French news outlets reported. That was a separate preventive measure following the events.

The full damage estimate and any casualties directly attributable to the CRS-bus incident were not established in the sourced material. Reports in the same monitoring collection about a Marseille football match and Austrian supporters are unrelated.