France riven by more rioting, tourism spots closed
PARIS — The rumble of armoured police trucks and the hiss of tear gas filled central Paris on Saturday, as French riot police fought to contain thousands of yellow-vested protesters venting their anger against the government in a movement that has grown more violent by the week. Police and protesters also clashed in the southern French cities of Marseille and Toulouse.
A ring of steel surrounded the president’s Elysée Palace — a key destination for the protesters — as police stationed trucks and reinforced metal barriers throughout the neighbourhood.
Saturday’s yellow vest crowd was overwhelmingly male, a mix of those bringing their financial grievances to Paris along with groups of apparently experienced vandals, who tore through some of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, smashing and burning.
The government’s plan was to prevent a repeat of the Dec. 2 rioting that damaged the Arc de Triomphe, injured 130 people and tarnished the country’s global image. But although Saturday’s protest in the French capital started out quietly, by late afternoon at least 551 people had been taken into custody and 60 people had been injured, according to Paris police and hospitals.
Some stores along the Champs-Elysées had boarded up their windows as though bracing for a hurricane, but the storm struck anyway, this time at the height of the holiday shopping season. Protesters ripped off the plywood protecting the windows and threw flares and other projectiles as they were repeatedly repelled by tear gas and water cannon.
All of the city’s top tourist attractions — including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum — shut down for the day, fearing the kind of damage that had hit the Arc de Triomphe.