Clashes broke out Thursday in Paris between a group of demonstrators and the police, with the start of a fire at La Rotonde, Emmanuel Macron’s popular brasserie. The 11th day of mobilization once morest the pension reform brought together a little less people.
Leaving the Esplanade des Invalides towards Place l’Italie, the procession passed in front of the famous restaurant where the Head of State had celebrated in 2017 his qualification for the second round of the presidential election.
It was then that “a group in black” placed at the front of the demonstration “sent projectiles”, including “bottles, cobblestones and firecrackers” on the police who placed themselves in protection of the brewery, according to an AFP journalist. The police headquarters estimated the number of members of this group at several hundred.
A fire broke out following a smoke bomb was thrown at the red awning. A woman inside the restaurant first tried to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher. The intervention of the firefighters then made it possible to quickly contain the flames.
A thousand ‘elements at risk’
The police headquarters deplored ‘injuries among the police’ but ‘the balance sheet is not consolidated at this stage’.
By 2:50 p.m., 1,330 pre-event checks had been carried out. Eight people have been arrested at this stage.
In Paris, “nearly 500 yellow vests” were expected by intelligence, but also “up to a thousand elements at risk”.
Rights Defender Claire Hédon, whose services have received ’90’ reports of police violence since the beginning of the protest movement, is present Thursday with lawyers in the command room of the police headquarters, invited by the Prefect Laurent Nuñez.
/ATS
