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IN PICTURES: 54 arrested after trouble erupts at Paris May Day demo

Fifty four people have been arrested after trouble erupted at the traditional May 1st march in Paris, with street furniture set on fire and shop windows smashed. A firefighter was attacked as he tried to extinguish the flames.

Published: 2 May 2022 08:46 CEST
IN PICTURES: 54 arrested after trouble erupts at Paris May Day demo
A fire burns in the road during clashes between protesters and police in Paris on May 1st. Photo by AFP

The main march – organised by trades unions and calling for improvements in standard of living as well as a halt to Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the pension age – passed off without incident, but a small group of black-clad protesters clashed with police shortly after the march moved off from Place de la République on Sunday afternoon.

Police clash with protesters on the Boulevard Voltaire. Photo by AFP

Later in the afternoon a McDonald’s was vandalised and windows smashed at banks, real estate agencies, insurance firms and a shop selling organic produce.

A fire burns in the road during clashes between protesters and police in Paris. Photo by AFP

The group sprayed anti-capitalist graffiti and set fire to street furniture and wheelie bins – with one female demonstrator attacking a firefighter as he and his colleagues attempted to extinguish the flames.

There were further clashes between the group and the police at Place de la Nation, with police firing tear gas. The main demonstration was blocked from entering Nation by police as the violence continued.

A police officer clashes with a protesters in tear gas smoke. Photo by AFP

According to an Interior Ministry update at 7pm on Sunday, 54 people had been arrested and eight police officers injured during the clashes.

Elsewhere in France, dozens of May 1st demonstrations took place, but largely passed off without incident. 

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CRIME

French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school

A 14-year-old girl has died of a heart attack in eastern France after her school locked down to protect itself from a knife attacker who lightly wounded two other girls, an official said on Friday.

Published: 20 April 2024 08:58 CEST
French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school

The teenager “was rescued by teachers who were very fast to call the fire department. She died at the end of the afternoon,” education official Olivier Faron said.

The girl’s middle school in the village of Souffelweyersheim closed its doors on Thursday afternoon after a man stabbed two other girls aged 7 and 11 outside a nearby primary facility.

“Sadly this pupil underwent an episode of very high stress that led to a heart attack,” Faron said.

A mother outside the middle school on Friday morning said her son in first year of secondary had also been scared during the lockdown the previous day.

“Whereas in the primary school they made it more like a game, perhaps here it was a little too direct,” Deborah Wendling said.

“He thought there was an armed person in the school. They could hear doors slamming, but in fact it was just other classrooms locking down.”

Faron defended the teachers.

READ ALSO: Schoolgirl threatens teacher with knife as tensions rise in French schools

“There is no perfect solution,” he said.

But “we will analyse in depth what happened. If there are lessons to be taken from this, we will take them.”

The two girls hurt in the attack were discharged from hospital on Thursday evening with only light wounds.

Police have arrested the 30-year-old assailant, and a probe has been opened into “attempted murder of minors”, the prosecutor’s office said.

It was not immediately clear what had motivated him, but it did not appear to be “a terrorist act”, it said.

He was “psychiatrically fragile” and appeared to have stopped his medication.

The incident follows a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers, in particularly the fatal beating earlier this month of Shemseddine, 15, outside Paris.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday announced measures to crack down on teenage violence in and around schools.

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