Gang that launched savage knife attack at French village’s winter ball killing boy, 16, and injuring 17 ‘told guests “We are here to stab white people” before rampage’

A gang that launched a knife attack at a French village’s winter ball, killing a teenage boy and wounding 17, told guests “we are here to stab white people,” according to a report.

The 16-year-old high school student, identified only as Thomas, was stabbed this weekend when a group of outsiders descended on a festive crowd of about 400 people who had gathered in Crepol, in the southwestern region of Drome, for a dance party at the town hall.

He died on the way to the hospital. Eight others were injured, two of them seriously.

Far-right activists have posted videos online that they say were recorded during the dance, claiming they allow the identification of two of the attackers. The authenticity of the videos has not been verified.

“We are here to stab white people,” shouted one of the attackers, dressed in overalls and sneakers, according to the local Dauphiné newspaper.

The killing has sparked shock and political controversy in France, with the far right today labeling the attack as anti-white racism.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told parliament that seven people had been arrested and that investigators would now investigate whether they were behind “this detestable crime.”

A source close to the case, who asked not to be named, told AFP that the suspected killer was one of seven arrested around the city of Toulouse – some 400 kilometers away – in raids carried out by 50 elite gendarmes. GIGN unit.

Even before the arrests, far-right politicians were quick to blame young people with immigrant backgrounds from public housing for the attack, even though police have not yet provided details about the identities of those arrested.

“Now anti-white racism is hitting our countryside,” says Marion Marechal, the leading candidate for the far-right Reconquete! party of ex-presidential candidate Eric Zemmour in next year’s European elections, claimed on X, formerly Twitter.

Marine Le Pen, figurehead of the far-right National Rally (RN) party and former presidential candidate, claimed in an interview with the weekly Valeurs Actuelles that “armed militias” were organizing “raids”.

Zemmour claimed, also on X: ‘Our martyrs are innocent victims of the war of civilizations.’

Gendarmerie spokeswoman Marie-Laure Pezan said on Tuesday that the weekend’s incident was marked “by violence that was quite unbelievable for a village of 500 inhabitants.”

Josette Place, a retiree and member of the village’s events committee, told AFP: “This was not a fight, it was an attack.”

Armed with knives and concrete blocks, “they came with the intent to kill,” she said of the attackers.

According to prosecutors, about ten young people tried to enter the dance hall of the village of Crepol on Saturday evening. One of them stabbed a guard who stood in their way.

Guests at the dance rushed to help and a fight broke out outside the building during which Thomas was fatally stabbed.

Far-right activists on Wednesday called for a silent march in Romans-sur-Isere, where Thomas’s secondary school is located, using hashtags such as #francocide, #Francaisreveillezvous (France Wake Up) or #Racaille (Thugs) in their online posts . .

Meanwhile, a gardener, identified only as Mourad, was attacked with a craft knife southwest of Paris on Friday by a 75-year-old man, who shouted racist insults and was later arrested.

Referring to the murder of Thomas and the attack on Mourad, French far-left MP Francois Ruffin spoke out against a “fierce atmosphere” in the media and social networks “as if one had to take sides.”

“Let us all be bulwarks against these decisions and remain human,” Ruffin wrote on X.