French PM slams 'urban rodeos' after firefighter critically injured

A firefighter in France was in a critical condition Saturday after being hit in what appeared to be a deliberate attack by a 19-year-old motorist as Prime Minister Francois Bayrou denounced the "curse" of urban rodeo stunts plaguing French cities.

France has a tradition of "urban rodeos", in which young motorists and bike riders perform noisy, high-speed stunts, disrupting traffic.

Interior minister Bruno Retailleau was expected to visit the scene in the eastern town of Evian-les-Bains later Saturday.

Bayrou said the urban rodeos were a "curse" many French cities and towns struggled with and said the government was working to clamp down on them.

"There is so much madness and disorder in the minds of people who believe that others don't matter, that their lives, their safety and their peace of mind don't matter," he told reporters.

The victim, a 38-year-old volunteer firefighter, was hit at around 6:00 am Saturday while trying to stop an urban rodeo involving two cars near his fire station.

Prosecutors said several firefighters asked the drivers to stop.

A "verbal altercation" ensued, with one of the drivers, a 19-year-old man, "deliberately" ramming a firefighter with his vehicle, the public prosecutor's office said.

He also "narrowly missed hitting another", prosecutors added.

The driver has been taken into custody.

Officers found three canisters of laughing gas, a bottle of vodka and a can of Red Bull in his vehicle, which had impact marks on the front and cracks on the windscreen.

He is known to the police, and his driving licence has been suspended since mid-April.

The other driver was also taken into custody.

Completely insane
"It's completely insane that someone would attack firefighters," Martial Saddier, head of the Haute-Savoie department, told a local radio station.

One of them was hit "with extreme violence, which is why he is in such a serious condition", he added.

Saddier said the firefighter had been airlifted to the hospital in Annecy in southeastern France.

"Zero tolerance for these individuals who lack judgement and show no respect for public safety and order," Jean-Paul Bosland, president of the National Federation of Firefighters of France, said on X.

The rowdy races and stunts, which have become increasingly popular, especially in low-income neighbourhoods, have caused multiple accidents.

Some people however defend them as a gritty urban subculture that provides an outlet for disaffected youths.

"Rodeo", a film that appears to glorify the gatherings, generated strong buzz at the Cannes film festival in 2022.

On Friday, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said the "scourge of urban rodeos" was "ruining the lives of many French people".

He called on prosecutors to take "the strongest possible action.

"From now on, they must systematically seize vehicles involved in rodeos and, as the law allows, sell them or have them destroyed even before the trial," said Darmanin. "No more impunity!"

On Friday, around 500 cars and nearly 3,000 people gathered for an urban rodeo in the southwestern city of Bordeaux before being dispersed by police.

A week ago, a local councillor in southwestern France was assaulted after trying to stop a motorcycle rodeo. He suffered several fractures to his face.

France has not taken as drastic measures as Britain, where police are authorised to ram their cars into suspected criminal riders to knock them over, a practice known as "tactical contact".