An unusual discovery was made by the police in Roubaix, last week, in the district of Trois-Ponts.Three holes with a depth of eighty centimeters to one meter which were filled with sharp items and covered with grass were found in a vacant lot.The government believes the purpose of the pit-traps was to injure the police."It's a crazy situation and, frankly this is unheard of in Roubaix and perhaps even France," laments a police official at Roubaix station.Last week, police patrolling the Trois-Ponts district were alerted that holes were being dug in a vacant lot near the Kennedy Avenue in Roubaix."When officers visited the site, young people from the neighborhood explained that they were digging pools to bathe in the event of extreme heat. As a precaution, their tools were confiscated."The night shift patrol revisited the site a few hours later and found that the holes were filled with sharp objects before being covered with branches and sheets to camouflage the objects."We're talking about pieces of glass, metal plates or up-turned chairs with their feet in the air — things positioned to hurt". The discovery was fortunately made before people got injured.The matter has to be taken very seriously. "It's a notorious place for drug-dealing. It's problematic for my colleagues because when they are chasing someone on foot, they do not necessarily examine the ground. The same goes for dogs in the canine brigade or for sniffer dogs. This is a new phenomenon. This is the first time we have faced such traps."The city of Roubaix confirms that the discovery was unusual to say the least. "The city's technical services has been to the site to plug the holes," explains Margaret Connell. This intervention was possible only under the protection of numerous personnel of the national and municipal police forces. The Northern Prefecture were contacted by journalists but did not respond to questions. The few locals in the area who wanted to respond esplained that they thought the holes had been dug by ANRU (Dept of Urban Renovation) although photos of the traps circulted widely on social media.An investigation has been opened. For now, nobody can be 100% sure that these traps were made to maim the police. "Who do you want them to address?" A police officer of Roubaix asked "Do those who have dug these traps realize that children are playing in these vacant lots and that they too can impale themselves on the chair legs or seriously injure themselves by falling into them? It is completely irresponsible. "According to our information, the city firefighters were briefed on the discovery of these traps. They were advised to be "extremely careful" when working in the neighborhood.