AND HERE IS THE NEWS…

….a light look at the latest local news with Caroline Manson

Man dies of Rabies in Perpignan Hospital

hopital perpignan

After being admitted to the infectious and tropical diseases department (SMIT) of Perpignan hospital with severe symptoms of rabies, a 32 year old man has now died.  This is the first fatal case of rabies in metropolitan France since 2023.  The virus is transmitted to humans via the saliva of certain animals, usually dogs and via bites or scratches, and symptoms include hydrophobia and convulsions.  The man is believed to have returned from a trip to Maghreb.

8 year old child brings knife to school

An 8 year old child has been excluded from the Alembert 2 school in Perpignan having shown a knife to his classmates while in the playground.  The children immediately reported it to the teachers who confiscated the knife, said to be a sharp kitchen knife.  Following this incident the police decided to carry out random checks on schoolbags in various schools around the region and seized three objects – one large pair of scissors, a bulky electronic cigarette and a large carpenter’s file.

Sniffer dogs thwart drug smuggler

Dog

During random checks at the Le Boulou Peage, customs officers decided to check the cargo of a truck registered in the Netherlands.  The driver explained that he was transporting stainless steel parts packed in cartons and arranged on pallets, but the sniffer dogs discovered four boxes packed at the bottom of one of the pallets, and inside the officers discovered 208 kilos of cannabis.  The driver was immediately placed in detention.

Violent prisoner causes dismay at Perpignan Prison

A particularly violent prisoner was transferred from Avignon to Perpignan Prison on Wednesday morning and within minutes of his arrival began shouting insults and provocations and even urinating deliberately.  The 30 year old is serving 18 years for rape, has 76 disciplinary proceedings against him and has been transferred 7 times.  The prison officers union is particularly angry that this man has been transferred to Perpignan as only recently the prison director had promised that no violent or psychiatric inmates would be assigned to classic detention in Perpignan and they are now considering strike action again.  The prisoner is being removed.

Perpignan cracks down on electric scooters

electric-scooters

Police have carried out two separate days of random checks on drivers of electric scooters on the streets of Perpignan, during which time they issued several fines for contraventions such us not being insured, wearing headphones while riding, carrying a passenger, not having lights etc.  On one of the days they issued 31 fines in just a 90 minute period. The municipality has now decided that these scooters are such a menace to pedestrians that they have decided to ban their use in certain areas of the city such as Quai Vauban and the Allées Maillol, to name but two.  This ban also applies to unicycles, gyro pods or cyclomobiles (whatever they are).

Pyrénées-Oriéntales on alert after cattle disease outbreak in Catalonia.

An outbreak of Contagious Bovine Nodular Dermatosis (DNC) was discovered in a calf farm in Castello d’Empuries in Spain, leading the French authorities to set up a “regulated zone” on the other side of the pyrenees.  This prohibits the movement of cattle and 75 municipalities have been placed under surveillance by the prefecture. The cattle will undergo a vaccination programme. The disease, which is transmitted by insect bites, is not transferable to humans but can lead to loss of milk production and sometimes death in an infected herd.

And finally…..

41 year old Matthieu is a volunteer researcher at Perpignan University.  His particular interest is the social and political history of Perpignan from the late 1980s and 1990s.  On a Sunday afternoon he decided to take a stroll around the Saint Jacques district where he wanted to visit 39 rue Llucia where a former deputy councillor held his office, and where he was actually assaulted in 1984.  It is also the place where a young man was killed before the 2005 riots.  Matthieu was just passing Rue de l’anguille when he heard a noise he describes as a ‘big clack’ and then felt a sharp pain in his calf.  He also heard the noise of around twenty projectiles whistling by and hitting street furniture. Police confirmed he had been shot in the leg with a small caliber weapon.

 

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