Courtney Love caught up in violent Uber protests
PARIS — Singer Courtney Love was attacked Thursday by striking taxi drivers in Paris.
French taxi drivers blocked the entrances to several airports around Paris to protest rival taxi app Uber, which they accused of stealing business.
Love’s car was attacked shortly after she landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport as mobs of taxi drivers targeted Uber drivers, even overturning some of their cars.
Love, widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, wrote on her Twitter account that she was caught in the clashes, saying her Uber vehicle and driver had been targeted by furious cabbies with metal bars, and likening Paris to Baghdad.
The 50-year-old singer issued a second expletive-filled tweet asking President François Hollande “where are the f---ing police?” and to get his “ass to the airport.”
She appeared later to have had a lucky escape, tweeting she had paid “some guys on motorcycles to sneak us out” as protesters threw rocks. With the situation degenerating at flashpoints across the French capital, Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, issued a placatory decree ordering police to “ban the use of Uber in Paris.”
The chaos began when furious French cabbies blocked the entrance to Paris’ two main airports, Roissy Charles de Gaulle and Orly, meaning many passengers had to walk along the motorway to reach their terminals. The roads around Gare du Nord, the terminus for the London to Paris Eurostar service were also blocked and Uber cars attacked.
In recent weeks nearly 100 Uber drivers have been attacked, sometimes while carrying customers.