Dozens of masked assailants wielding metal bars, mortars and molotov cocktails attacked cars on a highway and clashed with police early on Saturday in the city of Limoges in central France, reports The Guardian.
The overnight clashes left nine police wounded, according to authorities, who said they suspected a gang turf war.
The unrest came in the middle of France’s summer tourism season.
The armed attackers descended on the RN141 throughway and tried to block it during a battle with police, according to officials.
“There were between 100 and 150 masked individuals, armed with molotov cocktails, fireworks, stones, iron bars and baseball bats,” the local police union leader Laurent Nadeau told AFP.
Police responded with teargas and crowd-control munitions.
Mayor Émile Roger Lombertie called the rioters an “urban guerrilla group”.
“They’re organised, structured, there’s a plan, weapons,” he said. “This was not a spontaneous protest to complain about something. No pretext, nothing. It’s about destroying things and showing the territory belongs to you.”
Prosecutors said vehicles, some with families and children, were attacked but there were no immediate reports of wounded drivers. “None of the motorists were physically assaulted. However, several are particularly shocked,” prosecutors said in a statement.
Read more of this AFP report published by The Guardian.