May snow on Aigoual, GIGN arrest in a hotel, Olympic flame… the main news in the region

L'essentiel de l'actu ce 2 mai 2024. ML

Tous les soirs à 20 h 30, retrouvez l’essentiel de l’actualité en région sur midilibre.fr.

Lionel Valero will ensure the safety of the flame

#BÉZIERS – "This flame must never stop !" Lionel Valero, major at the Béziers police station, is preparing to carry out a very special mission. From May 8, when the prestigious Belem will touch the quay of the port of Marseille, it will be loaded, with 100 other police officers and gendarmes, with’ escort the Olympic flame until its arrival in Paris on July 26. "We will be there to ensure the safety of the porters, the course… and therefore of the flame itself", he said. There is no question of it dying out or of its progress being disrupted by demonstrators. After 32 years in the police, Lionel Valero, who applied by mail, sees this mission as a form of recognition. "It’is a unique opportunity", he adds.

A large geothermal power plant inaugurated

#MONTPELLIER – An inauguration… with great fanfare. The mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, unveiled this Thursday next to the A9 motorway, a new groundwater geothermal power plant, the largest in France. The location was chosen because it is located just above a body of non-potable, but good quality water, located 200 meters deep. The power plant is supplied by two boreholes 120 meters deep, with an average flow of 300 m3 per hour. This groundwater powers the reversible heat pumps, heating them in winter or cooling them in summer. Since 2018, it has already provided 40,000 m2 of housing and will soon be connected to the entire Cambacérès district, including the Sud de France station. The water is then released to the water table without modification apart from warming or cooling by a few degrees. The plant will ultimately avoid the emission of 1,250 tonnes of C0² per year.

Interviewed by the GIGN at the hotel

#GARD –Woke up at the hotel by the GIGN. This is what happened to a 25-year-old Alesian, unfavorably known to the courts, this Thursday morning in Nîmes. He was arrested for attempted homicide of a person holding public authority. He is in fact suspected of having injured a Saint-Ambroix gendarme on September 11 during a road check. Chased when he refused to stop, he entered a dead end with no access. He then turned around and rammed into the military's car. One of them barely had time to throw himself to the ground and injured his elbow. Another GIGN gendarme was injured in the hand on Thursday during the arrest which turned out to be heated.

Today's figure: 40.2 M€

#OCCITANIE – This is what the hunt for health insurance fraud. A record figure, "result of a national strategy", indicates Philippe Trotabas, director of the CPAM of Hérault, which coordinates action across Occitanie. These results are explained by targeted campaigns, particularly against audiologists (fictitious services, lack of deliveries). But also an increase in personnel intended to track fraud in each department.

May snow on Aigoual

#GARD – Surprise, this Thursday morning, at the summit of Aigoual. A thin layer of snow actually fell around the observatory and even on the slopes of the Alti Aigoual station, between 1,300 and 1,600 meters. This is not a first for the month of May but the phenomenon remains rare. In the afternoon, only a few flakes remained. This snow won't last long anyway with the return of good weather and a rise in temperatures forecast across the entire region in the coming days.

I subscribe to read more