Was the security insufficient?

The first minutes, the public describes a magical spectacle. Then the party suddenly turned tragic, Thursday July 14, in Cholet (Maine-et-Loire). Explosions reached the crowd, fatally hitting a 7-year-old child and his 24-year-old sister. Panic gripped the spectators. “At one point, we saw a firework that literally jumped off the grid and bounced, ricocheted off the field, and almost exploded in our faces”reports a witness.

Seven people are injured and hospitalized, including one in critical condition. In the morning, the investigators seized all the material. The scientific police are now trying to shed light on the reasons for the tragedy. In a press release, the artificer advances a “malfunction (…) when shooting“, having led “the projection of products contained in the tubes towards an area prohibited to the public”. How were the spectators able to sit so close to the launch pad, between 30 and 50 meters away? Who was responsible for enforcing the conditions of access to the site? The mayor (DVD), Gilles Bourdouleix, rejects all responsibility. “What did the national police do, who was there to watch?”he asks.