An eerie discovery. A resident of Vernaison, a municipality near Lyon (Rhône), discovered on Saturday July 8 that the family grave of a victim of the Bataclan attack had been vandalised during the night, reports Le Progrès. The thief or thieves used a grinder to steal three bronze chains about one metre long, the newspaper reported. The grave of the deceased was damaged, as was the lantern of his daughter Caroline, who was killed in the Bataclan attack on November 13, 2015. This object was broken.
The mayor of the municipality of just under 5,000 inhabitants, Julien Vuillemard, condemned the crime when asked by Le Figaro and supported the family of the deceased. “We are thinking about better securing access to the cemetery,” the mayor said, pointing out that teams from the municipal police would regularly check on the area. Julien Vuillemard at least admitted that MPs were “helpless in the face of this kind of damage”, which was becoming more frequent.
As for the identity of the buried, one of whom was a victim of the Bataclan attack, all indications are that this did not affect the thief or thieves. “I doubt that the people who did this knew which family they were targeting. But no matter what, it brings back bad memories of the attacks,” he told Le Figaro.