Paris:  Protest Turns Violent

City of love with Eiffel tower is not in peace as violence erupted on the margins of anti-fuel tax demonstrations held by the citizens’ protest movement known as the gilets jaunes or yellow jackets. The situation got worse when Shops and cars set alight after peaceful gilets jaunes protest.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, hold an emergency meeting of senior ministers on Sunday after central Paris saw its worst unrest in a decade on Saturday. Thousands of masked protesters fought running battles with police, set fire to cars, banks and houses and burned makeshift barricades on the edges of displays against fuel tax rises. Authorities had to hire extra trucks to begin removing the carcasses of burnt cars on from the scorched pavements of some of Paris’s most expensive streets, amid graffiti calling for Macron to resign.
Piles of teargas canisters littered broken pavements in front of rows of shattered shop fronts and smashed windows, as TV channels showed non-stop footage of central Paris in flames during Saturday’s events. Benjamin Griveaux the government spokesman did not rule out imposing a state of emergency – which two police unions have called for. The president, prime minister and interior minister said they would discuss all available options. More than 400 people were arrested on Saturday, with over 300 still in police custody on Sunday. More than 130 people were injured, while one protester is in serious condition in a coma.
Speaking from the G20 meeting in Argentina, Macron said he would “never accept violence”. “No cause justifies that security forces are attacked, shops pillaged, public or private buildings set on fire, pedestrians or journalists threatened or that the Arc de Triomphe is sullied,” he added.
> Alma Siddiqua