Marseille hit by Covid-related crime wave

Marseille is grappling with a surge in fighting and pickpocketing on local beaches, which are overcrowded because the coronavirus pandemic has forced many residents to cancel holidays elsewhere.

The rowdy Mediterranean port city is notorious for gang wars, street violence and drugs trafficking, an image that tends to put off tourists.

But this year its beaches are packed with locals as many youths from its deprived, crime-ridden, northern suburbs hang around the beach front unable to go on their usual holidays to North Africa, and the numbers of French tourists have increased because of the difficulties of travelling abroad.

Sandine Touyon, head of a local residents’ association, said: “This summer, we’re seeing a new phenomenon, with hordes of youths arriving at noon with ice-boxes and crowding into coves, blaring music, drinking all day and into the evening, and swimming at night.”

Alcohol-fuelled fights often break out, while the beaches have become a magnet for pickpockets, residents say.

Suzanne and Françoise, two Marseille students, said their mobiles had been stolen from their bags in the Vallon des Auffes fishing harbour, a popular spot for sunbathing and swimming, where restaurant terraces attract night-time crowds. "We didn’t notice that local people had put up notices warning that pickpockets were in the area,” Suzanne said.

Emmanuel Barbe, the police chief, acknowledged that local residents were reporting a rise in petty crime, but downplayed the problem. “In absolute terms, there is no significant increase in delinquency,” he insisted.

But residents say the statistics do not reflect the true picture because minor crimes and fights often go unreported.

Claire Pitollat, a local MP from President Emmanuel Macron’s party, has urged the government to send police reinforcements to Marseille to maintain order on its 33 beaches, spread over 25 miles of coastline. She said the 150 police officers, lifeguards and social workers responsible for the 11 most popular sites were overwhelmed. “Given the situation, the city needs national reinforcements.”

The Marseille Tourist Office was unable to provide figures for the numbers of people who have cancelled their annual trips out of the city, but a spokesman said: “There are a lot of French tourists this summer and the Marseillais aren’t leaving on holiday, especially those of north African origin who usually spend two months with their families there.”

Fazia Hamiche, head of an NGO that works with schoolchildren in deprived areas, Citoyens en Actions de Proximité (Citizens for Neighbourhood Action), estimated that about 65,000 Marseille residents have cancelled holidays in Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia this summer.

“No activities have been organised for all these young people deprived of their annual trip to their family homes who are staying here,” she said. "We didn’t anticipate the Covid wave that’s hit North Africa.”