environmental activists ransack a Lafarge group cement plant – RT in French

The Lafarge factory in Bouc-Bel-Air was targeted on December 10 by a hundred masked environmental activists who committed significant damage to it, thus causing the cessation of activity.

On December 10, the Lafarge La Malle industrial site in Bouc-Bel-Air (Bouches-du-Rhône), in the crosshairs of environmental defenders, was attacked by environmental activists dressed in white full suits.

Images posted on Twitter show militants armed with axes and hammers destroying a surveillance camera and cutting cables. Construction vehicles were also set on fire. France Bleu also evokes “sacks of cement gutted”, a break-in on the site and puts forward the figure of a hundred assailants. The cement manufacturer denounced a “criminal act” and announced that a complaint would be filed. The activity was still at a standstill on December 11.

“Here in Bouc-Bel-Air, the ovens that were targeted, long fueled by industrial waste and tires, are today the symbol of the greenwashing. Air pollution is considerable […] However, the chimneys always spit their venom”, justifies a press release attributed to activists and quoted byProvence.

“Everything happened really fast. In less than an hour they had already left”, testified an employee quoted by the regional daily. “They arrived by the tire storage part, we couldn’t do anything.”

The site has often been singled out by environmental activists as tens of thousands of tires are burned there to produce cement. The plant has already been given formal notice by the prefecture to respect the authorized limits for the emission of sulfur dioxide, a toxic gas which, among other things, causes respiratory problems. The Lafarge group meanwhile claims to have invested 6.2 million euros to make its production compliant.

An investigation was opened and entrusted to the Bouc-Bel-Air gendarmerie to identify the perpetrators of the damage.