A 33-year-old Afghan migrant has been placed in pretrial detention in Montpellier after being arrested on suspicion of deliberately starting several fires in the city center, directly behind the Opéra Comédie.
According to investigators, the incidents occurred in the early hours of Sunday. At around 5:40 a.m., officers monitoring the Montpellier urban surveillance system observed an individual igniting a garbage container on Rue de la Maréchaussée, directly behind the opera house. After setting the fire, the suspect walked away from the scene and fled on foot.
Midi Libre reported how police patrols were alerted by radio and quickly located a man matching the description a short distance away on Rue des Étuves. He was arrested without incident and later identified as a 33-year-old Afghan national who told officers he was homeless.
The investigation found that three garbage containers were set on fire on Rue de la Maréchaussée before the suspect moved to nearby Rue Richelieu, where three scooters were deliberately torched. Four additional scooters parked close by were damaged as the flames spread.
The fire also blackened the rendering of nearby residential buildings, with authorities saying the blaze came close to spreading further.
The suspect was brought before the Montpellier public prosecutor on Monday and has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
He will remain in pre-trial detention pending an expedited hearing.
Arson attacks by migrants have become somewhat commonplace across France in recent years. In July last year, a 51-year-old Moroccan migrant was convicted for an arson attack that destroyed four acres of forest in Saint-Gilles. Despite the severe arson attack and a lengthy criminal record, he was only given a suspended sentence and will serve no jail time unless he reoffends.
One high-profile case involved a Sudanese migrant who nearly killed dozens of people in a series of arson attacks across the French city of Pau in 2022. In total, he burned down 16 apartments, multiple cars, and part of a church, while one student caught up in one of the blazes was forced to jump from her apartment window, resulting in her breaking both of her ankles and needing semi-permanent use of a cane.
Despite being convicted of the mass arson, he was not ordered to be deported, as he claimed his life would be under threat if he returned to Sudan.
In July last year, two French churches were hit with arson attacks in what authorities considered to be religiously-motivated offenses, while in May, a group of young men stormed another church in Avignon, shouting “Allahu akbar” and threatening to burn the church down.
The intimidation led to police officers guarding the building during Sunday morning masses.
