Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced on Tuesday that there will be no more drug addicts in the Éole Gardens as of Wednesday and reiterated her promise to return the park in northeast Paris to residents by the end of June.

“Tomorrow, the garden will once again become a garden for local residents, for families. There will be no more drug addicts in the garden,” Hidalgo told French television station LCI on Tuesday evening.

“I have set a limit for the end of June,” she said, without giving details of evacuation plans or saying where the addicts would go.

Earlier in June, Hidalgo asked Premier Jean Castex for “new care facilities to be established that are adapted to the problems faced by crack users.” “I want a place to help drug addicts to be opened, because we cannot just evacuate them without dealing with this issue,” Hidalgo said.

According to sources close to the case, Hidalgo confirmed to residents that Éole Gardens will no longer accept crack users after June 30.

In theory, the park will be off-limits to them due to police surveillance and civilian patrols. Authorities are also planning a programme in the park for families in the neighbourhood.

Since mid-May, crack users have gathered every night in the public garden, where addicts come during the day and move to Stalingrad, 500 metres away, after dark.

The garden was open to users until 1 am, causing a lot of tension in the area. On Saturday, the addicts were exposed to fireworks in the park.