Protesters clashed with police in southern France on Saturday over the death of a young activist killed by a police grenade, in the latest of a series of demonstrations which have embarrassed the socialist government, reports The Guardian.
At least 16 people were arrested in Toulouse after garbage containers were set on fire and bus stops smashed on the margins of an otherwise peaceful march where demonstrators held placards reading "end to the licence to kill".
Remi Fraisse, 21, was killed last month by a so-called “offensive grenade” during a standoff between police and opponents of a dam project in wetlands near Toulouse. Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve later ordered these devices banned.
Around 600 to 1,000 protesters marched in Toulouse and 1,200 in the western city of Nantes, where 14 were arrested.
The death has further soured relations between president François Hollande’s Socialist government and the Green party, a one-time government partner which said the government has not reacted properly to Fraisse’s death and has accused Cazeneuve of initially hiding the truth.
Read more of this Reuters report published by The Guardian.
See also:
Revealed: how French state hid truth about dam protest death for two days
French dam protest death: gendarmes used 400 grenades in one night
Bitter background to tragic death of young French eco-protester