A far-Left activist accused of setting fire to a town hall during the French riots is now being prosecuted for trying to kill a police officer.
Hodei Ciarra Docampo, 34, was already facing up to 20 years behind bars for allegedly torching Limoges City Hall - a listed building dating back to 1883 whose roof and belfry collapsed in a fire last Saturday.
But, following his arrest on Tuesday, it was announced this morning that he is being prosecuted for the 'attempted murder of a person holding public authority'.
He is being held for another 48 hours as a result, Limoges public prosecutor Emilie Abrantes added.
She said: 'The meticulous work of the investigators, and in particular the detailed analysis of the mapping and chronology of events, the use of images from the drone used by the national police, and the thorough interviews with the 13 municipal police officers present at Limoges City Hall at the time of the incident, justify the extension of the current custody period.'
Mr Docampo allegedly wore a black balaclava, ski goggles and a bucket hat as he was filmed tending to the blaze at the historic town hall.
Prosecutors also said Mr Docampo has links to the ultra-Left extremist group Les Soulèvements de la Terre (The Rise of the Earth) and was on a terror watchlist.
And he was convicted of assaulting a police officer two years ago during a protest at a wood pellet factory, The Telegraph reported.
Hodei Ciarra Docampo, 34, is already accused of torching Limoges City Hall during a riot
Dating back to 1883, the listed building's roof and belfry collapsed after being set ablaze
Mr Docampo was arrested by members of the elite RAID counter-terrorism unit, which launched an operation at dawn on the suspect's parents' house in Val d'Issoire, a town 30 miles north of Limoges.
Prosecutors do not believe the town hall's destruction was the work of a single person, but that it was targeted by extremists.
Police have arrested a second man in connection with the blaze. The 66-year-old , who has not been named, was taken into custody by Bordeaux police on charges of 'organised destruction of property by means dangerous to persons'.
His political affiliations are not known.
Limoges' mayor, Guillaume Guerin, labelled Mr Docampo as the alleged 'mastermind' of the attack.
He said: 'What happened is unacceptable. The involvement of the far-Left has been clear from the start in this fire.
'You don't destroy a 200-year-old building in a few hours with a box of matches and a lighter.'
The mayor claimed the group brought fireworks, mortars and battering rams to break the historic building's doors down.
Limoges' mayor believes the far-Left destroyed the town hall with fireworks, mortars and a ram
The activists forced entry into the building, in what may have been a planned attack
People stand as water is sprayed over the wrecked town hall in the aftermath of the siege
Mr Guerin added: 'You don't just carry such items around in a backpack.'
Though he has not been convicted of the crimes he has been accused of, arson does appear to run in the family.
His father, 70-year-old Basque separatist Fernando Ciarra, was sentenced to three years in prison last April for arson attacks in Limoges, local media reported.
Mr Ciarra is said to have torched eight vehicles belonging to Enedis, an energy firm, in February 2020 and carried out attacks on a broadcast station and mobile phone tower.
Mr Guerin has since called for a 'full reconstruction' of the building. Its facade is still standing, though at risk of collapse. The interior and roof have been destroyed.
The attack came on a night of chaos in which thousands of masked looters ransacked shops and businesses across France.
French authorities today imposed bans or restrictions on fresh protests springing up in the wake of last weekend's demonstrations.
President Emmanuel Macron said, after chairing a meeting of key ministers and intelligence officials, that curfews and other security measures would be imposed, including bans on 'groups without legitimacy' holding protests.
'The priority is a return to calm,' he said, adding that he would chair a defence council meeting of key ministers on Friday to decide 'the next steps' for new nationwide demonstrations called for Saturday and afterwards.
The remains of Limoges town hall. The mayor has called for it to be repaired soon
French gendarmerie intervene as students stage a sit-in protest outside Sciences Po Paris
Officials are still reeling from the clashes, widespread looting and vandalism of public buildings that broke out on October 17. They began amid disgruntlement with the rising cost of living and the standards of schools.
Mr Macron's government has admitted police lost control and candidates jockeying to succeed him in presidential elections in six months' time argue that authorities are incapable or unwilling to calm the situation.
The worst of the violence, Mr Macron said, 'was led by organised ultra-Left groups aiming to bring down the republic'.
It comes as a protest in Paris today organised by students – who had held four weeks of demonstrations before the October 17 rallies – was banned by the capital's police.
'The authorities are trying to make a distinction between "good" and "bad" protesters,' said a university student leader, Coppelia Moreau, as lawyers requested a court injunction against the ban.
'What we are seeing is a government that doesn't want any demonstrations at all. That goes against the right to demonstrate,' she told journalists.
Local authorities have also declared a ban on 'all protests' in the southwestern city of Lyon on Saturday.
France's third-biggest city suffered the looting of 200 to 300 shops last weekend and the torching of a tourist office, in what its mayor described as hours of 'chaos'.
Ther likes of Grenoble, Rouen, Le Havre and Toulon, also issued bans on protests in their city centres.
In Paris, the city's police said the march planned for Saturday could be held in the east of the capital, starting at Bastille, but was banned from heading into the centre.
The Yellow Vest movement organising the cost-of-living rallies along with unions said it did not agree with the order.
A man throws a plastic traffic cone through a burning barricade amid clashes during a day of demonstrations against the cost of living and rising fuel prices in Paris on October 17
Demonstrators clash with riot police in and around Place de la Republique in the French capital
'We won't sign off on it,' said Benjamin Ball, who runs an online map showing the planned locations of Saturday's demonstrations.
The French government has been projecting a firm response in the wake of last weekend's violence, although Mr Macron has said he would not go as far as to call a state of emergency.
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said Wednesday that 174 people of the 2,500 arrested since last weekend had been locked up, and more than 900 were being prosecuted.
On Thursday, a 66-year-old man was arrested over the arson last weekend of the 19th-century town hall of Limoges, prosecutors said. A man in his 30s was already arrested on Tuesday over the same crime.
Marine Le Pen, the hard-Right leader whom voter surveys place as the front-runner for next spring's presidential elections, has accused Mr Macron and his centrist government of being too soft and lacking authority.
And Jean-Luc Melenchon, a hard-Left candidate criticised by the government for not condemning the protest violence, blamed authorities' 'non-stop brutal repression' for the unrest.
Prime minister Sebastien Lecornu is today set to host a meeting of top officials from France's main parties to hear their grievances and seek co-operation. While most were sending their leaders, Ms Le Pen's National Rally was to be represented by a lower-ranking party official.
Mr Lecornu was to follow that up with another meeting with mayors, and on Monday he will meet student groups.