TEAR GAS, PETROL BOMBS AS POLICE CLEAR ‘ECO-CAMP’

FRENCH police battled Tuesday to evict anti-airport protesters and the creators of an alternative anti-capitalist settlement in western France during a second day of clashes.

Some 2500 officers raided the decade-old camp at NotreDame-des-Landes on Monday, destroying makeshift buildings topped with corrugated iron, a giant tent, a watchtower, and a sheep shed and cheesemaking area.

The assault in a wooded area near the city of Nantes has seen dozens of rounds of tear gas fired, as well as stun grenades, while the demonstrators responded by throwing petrol bombs and rocks at the security forces. The activists have used tractors and burning barricades of tyres, wooden pallets and hay bales to keep the police at bay.

Two policemen suffered minor injuries, a security source said, while around six demonstrators were hurt.

Activists began squatting on the farmland in 2008 and police were out to retake control of a key road that has been blocked for five years.

Picture: AFP A protester runs away from tear gas during the expulsion of the last holdouts from an anti-capitalist camp in the ZAD (Zone a Defendre) in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, western France. More than 2000 French police officers took part in the expulsion of the last anti-capitalists.