French police probed over Covid rule-breaking party at station

PARIS: French authorities opened an investigation on Thursday after a group of police officers were filmed dancing at a party inside a station in apparent open defiance of Covid-19 social distancing rules.

The police at the station in Aubervilliers north of Paris were attending the leaving party of a colleague, with the images leaked to the Loopsider online news site.

The controversy comes at a time when the police are enforcing a 6pm curfew across France to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

They are also under new pressure over alleged institutionalised racism in their ranks after a series of high-profile controversies.

The investigation has been handed by prosecutors to the National Police Inspectorate General (IGPN) which probes misdemeanours by the police, prosecutors in the northern Paris district of Bobigny said.

The police are accused of putting the alives of others in danger by failing to respect the curfew and health measures, they added.

On the video published by Loopsider, at least a dozen people can be seen singing and dancing without masks and without respecting social distancing measures, in what appears to be the recreation room of the police station.

It said the party was organised on Jan 22 to mark the departure of a police lieutenant

They can be heard singing songs including “Hey Macarena”.

Before the judicial probe was announced, Paris police had already said that an administrative inquiry had been opened.