Courtney’s love lost in taxi riot
SINGER Courtney Love told of her terror as her taxi was attacked in Paris, amid chaos and violent rioting on the streets.
The star was caught up in clashes between police and furious French taxi drivers, who were protesting about rival car service Uber on Friday.
Love said her car was struck, making her feel like she was in a war zone.
She wrote on Twitter: “They’ve ambushed our car and are holding our driver hostage. They’re beating the cars with metal bats. This is France? I’m safer in Baghdad.”
Kurt Cobain’s widow posted a second expletivefilled tweet asking President Francois Hollande where the “f****** police” were and telling him to “get to the airport”.
She said she paid “some guys on motorcycles to sneak us out” after protesters threw stones at her cab.
As the protests spread across the country, reality star Kim Kardashian was caught up in chaos in the southern seaside town of Cannes on Tuesday.
Last week, taxi drivers in Strasbourg posed as customers to lure Uber drivers to isolated spots, where they assaulted them.
In Paris, police used tear gas and baton charges as huge traffic jams built up during the morning rush hour. Access to the city’s ring road was blocked off, along with entrances to the Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports.
Uber drivers’ cars were attacked, bur ning tyres were placed in tunnels, and minicabs were rocked from side to side or tipped upside down.
French cabbies are furious at competition from American firm Uber, which allows customers to hail the closest cab using its smartphone app.
The drivers say Uber threatens their jobs by offering customers cheaper rates and allowing them to pay by card.
France’s top security official Bernard Cazeneuve called yesterday for an end to the violence. But trade union spokesman Karim Asnoun said the drivers remained “very angry” and intended to block off as many roads as possible.
Thomas Meister, a spokesman for Uber, said the company was simply a “symptom of a badly organised market”, adding: “There are people who are willing to do anything to stop any competition.”
Despite Uber’s popularity with the public, it is facing numerous legal challenges from the taxi lobby. In London, thousands of black-cab drivers went on strike earlier this year in protest at the explosion in poorly regulated minicabs taking their customers. – Daily Mail