To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to an online
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Switzerland – considered to be considered one of Europe’s most peaceful countries -has been engulfed by 48 hours of riots after a youngster was killed during a police chase.
The 17-year-old died while attempting to escape the officers, who allege he was riding a stolen scooter.
Police raced after him, with the automotive’s blue lights flashing, at a distance of greater than 100 metres.
In keeping with initial investigations, the teenager lost control of the scooter as he drove over a speed bump, and crashed into the wall of a garage.
Despite attempts to rescucitate him, the victim died on the scene.
Swiss media reported that the boy, wjho has not yet been named officially by authorities, was of a migrant background, which has only inflamed the alredy fragilerelations between authorities and immigrant communities.
The incident happened in town of in Lausanne, within the French-speaking region of Vaud, just before 4am on Sunday.
By the evening, greater than 100 masked teenagers gathered within the district of Prélaz, hurling fireworks at police, overturning and torching bins, and even damaging a bus belonging to the Lausanne transport company.
Footage showed burning containers and volleys of fireworks while armed police clashed with the gang.
Police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the gang, while firefighters extinguished the blazes.
A neighborhood councillor for the right-wing, anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP), Thibault Schaller, was on the scene and claimed he was attacked.
In a post on his X account, he said he was surrounded by 10 to fifteen individuals who hit him from all sides.
He wrote: ‘Buses and trash cans set on fire in Prélaz (Lausanne) in response to the death of the 17-year-old youth who died Sunday morning while fleeing the police on a stolen scooter.
‘Unaware of what it’s about, I head to the scene. Some antifa recognize me, three surround me, back against the wall, they usually order me to go away.
‘I refuse and ask what’s happening. One pushes me, I push him back then step back, someone shouts something, and ten, fifteen people come running at me from in every single place.
‘I run away, take hits, they block my path, I fall, protect myself, I pick up while one or two people tell me to go away. I rise up, run, get surrounded again against a wall, blows, then I manage to get away by running.’
Schaller said he was ‘wonderful,’ but added that ‘we want to take town back.’
His party, SVP, has been vocal against what it claims to be ‘uncontrolled immigration’ and has pushed for population limits.
For a lot of residents in Lausanne, the boy’s death isn’t seen as an isolated tragedy but as a part of a broader pattern of discriminations, and the unrest reflects the mounting frustration.
The riots cintinued for a second night on Monday, but police confirmed that the situation is udner control.
The general public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Vaud has opened a criminal investigation into the death of the teenager.
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: ‘Toxic mushroom’ killer Erin Patterson offered forgiveness by survivor of deadly meal
MORE: Prince Andrew sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre to publish bombshell memoir posthumously
MORE: Man, 33, arrested after painting England flags and ‘shouting racist abuse’ at mother in Basildon