French Officers Deploy Tear Gas to Escape Mob Ambush

French police officers were forced to use tear gas while escaping a large group of assailants in the commune of Roquefort-la-Bédoule on Monday night.

A patrol responded to calls about a brawl between approximately 20 people in the city center just before midnight.

Upon arriving, three officers found themselves facing an aggressive mob and at least one injured person.

When officers attempted to rescue the wounded individual, the crowd set upon them in a scene described as an "ambush" by local media, with some of the attackers ultimately pulling the injured person from the squad car.

“Trapped, and realizing that the victim was taken from them and that their life was now threatened, the three soldiers had to use tear gas to escape the furious crowd,” La Provence reports.

“With a certain composure, they managed to regain their vehicle, whose windshield threatened to burst, and had to retreat, awaiting the arrival of reinforcements from PSIG and their mobile colleagues.”

One of the officers was reportedly injured in the melee.

The incident comes on the heels of a similar ambush in Reims, where firefighters and officers responding to an arson spree were hit with explosives and projectiles by armed insurgents.

“We saw a band of ten to fifteen young people, some hooded, others bareheaded, with things in their hands, like sticks,” an eyewitness told local media.

“They were scattered around the parking lot setting cars on fire without saying anything. They were silent. The only cries we heard were those of the inhabitants.”

At least a dozen cars were destroyed in the fire.

(PHOTO: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty Images)