Man armed with bottle of accelerant scaled gates of French president’s residence – media

Three people were reportedly arrested in Paris on Thursday, after one of them tried to scale the gates of the residence of President Emmanuel Macron, carrying a bottle of flammable liquid.

The incident at the Elysée Palace happened mid-afternoon, according to Le Figaro’s sources. A group of two men and one woman was arrested after one of them tried to make his way into the presidential residence while the two others filmed his attempt, the newspaper said.

The would-be intruder, who was in his 30s, reportedly had a bottle of accelerant stuffed with a piece of cloth, which was set on fire before he started climbing the gates of the palace. It’s not clear if the apparent firebomb was actually thrown during the stunt, but the police have charged the trio with attempted violence with the use of a weapon, a source told Figaro.

The suspect reportedly claimed to be an artist and denied having any violent intentions.

While the French media would not immediately identify the suspect, some outlets say he was a Belarusian national. The news website TYT.by said the gate-scaling man was Aleksey Kuzmich, 33, who is somewhat notorious in the country following anti-government shock-protest actions he conducted in recent years. He reportedly left Belarus in September 2020 and is now in Paris. 

A Facebook account in his name posted an open letter to Macron in Russian and French on Thursday, stating Kuzmich’s intention to launch a “revolution” in France. He accused France of “sliding towards fascism” under Macron and said the french leader was following in the footsteps of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

To become “a truly mighty bloodsucker on par with Hitler, Stalin, Lenin” and his Belarusian counterpart, Macron only needs to grow a mustache, the letter said, predicting that one day the president’s head will roll “like the head of the last French monarch did.”

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