Policeman found dead in French prime minister’s garden
- PM Edouard Philippe was out of the country at the time, visiting France’s Pacific colony New Caledonia
A police officer was found dead on Monday on the grounds of the French prime minister’s official residence in Paris in a death officials said was being treated as a suicide.
The 45-year-old Garde Republicaine gendarme, part of the armed force’s policing branch, was found next to his service weapon in the gardens of the Hotel de Matignon, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s office and residence.
Philippe, who was on a visit to New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the Pacific, was informed of the “tragic” incident and sent his condolences to the family, his office said in a statement.
It said both the Paris prosecutor’s office and the gendarmerie would carry out an investigation into the officer’s death.
In August, gendarmes attached to Matignon had complained about their “worsening working conditions” in an anonymous letter sent to their superiors.