A tragedy occurred on the evening of Thursday February 12 in Lyon, the causes and circumstances of which remain unclear by the judicial authorities, but sparked numerous political reactions, in the middle of the municipal campaign. Quentin D., 23, was taken care of at 7:40 p.m. by the firefighters and a SAMU team, Quai Fulchiron, in the 5th arrondissement, along the Saône.

Very seriously injured, victim of a concussion, the young student was transported to Edouard-Herriot hospital, placed in a coma, with his life threatening. On site, a friend who accompanied him told the rescuers that the young man had been the victim of an attack. In the following hours, this event was not particularly reported, nor linked to incidents which had broken out shortly before in two separate places in the city.

On the one hand, in the 7th arrondissement, near the premises of Sciences Po, where activists from the Némésis identity group had unfurled a banner to contest the conference of MEP Rima Hassan (La France insoumise, LFI). On the other hand, in the premises of the Lyon-3 University, quai Claude-Bernard, where a university conference on law and war was disrupted, this time, by a group of around twenty ultra-left activists. “These two events motivated a surveillance and intervention system by the police forces, but at no time were there reports of serious violence or injuries at the two places affected by the demonstrations,” specifies a security source.

An open investigation

Friday morning, the young man’s attack took on a completely different connotation. The Némésis collective claimed, in several messages on The small group designated members of the Young Guard, an anti-fascist group dissolved in June 2025 and founded by the Lyonnais Raphaël Arnault, who became a deputy (LFI) in 2024 in Vaucluse.