Switzerland: Riots Erupt After Migrant Dies in Police Chase

Violence has erupted in the Swiss city of Lausanne after a teenage migrant died while fleeing police.

Riot police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets as protesters hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at officers in the French-speaking city on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Lausanne saw two consecutive nights of violence, with around 200 rioters clashing with 140 police officers.

Marvin M, a 17-year-old resident of Lausanne, was fleeing police on a stolen scooter when he crashed into a wall and died at around 3.45am on Sunday. A criminal investigation has been launched by Lausanne’s public prosecutor to determine the circumstances behind the death.

It was the third death involving police in less than three months in the city, with seven in the wider Vaud region since 2016. Five of those deaths were of men originally from Africa.

The unrest also comes after four police officers were suspended on Monday following the discovery of racist, sexist and discriminatory messages in private groups on WhatsApp.

On Sunday evening, reports emerged of around 100 people, some wearing balaclavas, gathering in the Prelaz neighbourhood from around 9pm.

They allegedly threw fireworks at police, hurled makeshift firebombs at abandoned buses and set fire to rubbish bins.

On Monday, up to 200 people set up roadblocks using bins that were set them on fire, according to police. Seven people were arrested before order was restored at around midnight on Monday, Bild reported.

“Pyrotechnic devices were used against the police – it’s scandalous,” Pierre-Antoine Hildbrand, Lausanne city’s security councillor, told the Keystone-ATS news agency.

“We are facing a movement that has nothing to do with the death of this youth, but which is using it as an excuse to attack law enforcement. It’s disgraceful.”

A third night of violence was avoided after police deployed extra resources to the scene on Tuesday.

Police have acknowledged that one of their cars was pursuing Marvin M when he crashed, but local prosecutors said they were working to “clarify and calm the situation”.

A statement by the prosecutor said there was “no contact” between the police car and the scooter, and that two motorists approached the teenager before police arrived at the crash site.

Marvin’s family denied that he was a thief, with his mother pleading her son’s innocence. His brother wrote online: “You should be with me, at home, in our room, which we’ve always shared.”

Thibault Schaller, a local councillor for the Right-wing, anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party, said he was at the scene of the riots.

“Buses and trash cans set on fire in Prélaz [Lausanne] in reaction to the death of the 17-year-old youth who died Sunday morning while fleeing the police on a stolen scooter,” he posted on X.

“Unaware of what it’s about, I head to the scene. Some Antifa recognise me, three surround me, back against the wall, and they order me to leave.

“I refuse and ask what’s happening. One pushes me, I push him back then step back, someone shouts something, and 10, 15 people come running at me from everywhere.”