Last Saturday, French police carried out around 1,200 checks on the A31 motorway at the Luxembourgish border.
81 drivers were fined for failing to present a valid reason to leave their homes, the Républicain Lorrain reported.
Luxembourg may have kicked off a gradual lifting of confinement measures but this is not yet the case in France.
Head of the Grand-Est’s border police unit Pierre Bordereau lamented that increasing numbers of people are starting to disregard France’s strict lockdown rules. “We expected that Lorraine residents might be tempted to head to the Grand Duchy to fill up their cars or buy cigarettes. What we didn’t expect is the high number!,” Bordereau lamented.
He added that it was the first time since the introduction of the lockdown that such an alarming number of individuals disregarded the drastic measures.
The 81 fines were issued within four hours - a number that may seem comparatively low given that the police have checked no less than 1,200 drivers. Police stressed that they were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of traffic.
Moselle prefect Didier Martin said he was “sincerely disappointed” to see so many people on the moving about without having a valid reason. “This is a total disregard of the lockdown, which remains valid until 11 May,” he concluded.
According to the Républicain Lorrain, police may carry out additional checks on the A31 between 1 and 8 May.
