Paris, Aug. 21, (dpa/GNA) - France plans to assign 3,000 police officers to chase down arsonists amid the fight against devastating forest fires.
The “green policemen” are to pursue environmental crimes and especially arson, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told the Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
“The goal is to have officers specialized in environmental crimes in every police brigade,” he said.
In many parts of the country, the French fire brigade is fighting forest fires this summer, some of them devastating, which are difficult to contain after long periods of drought.
Some of the fires are suspected to have been started deliberately.
According to Darmanin, 26 arsonists have been caught this summer, while there are 80 to 120 new fire outbreaks every day.
GNA