Violence breaks out at protest as people attack police car in Paris; three arrested

The French government denounced "unacceptable violence" on Saturday (September 23) that broke out at a protest headed by the hard left against police brutality, as officers were reported to be trapped inside the police vehicle after the attack, reported an AFP correspondent.

The nationwide protest took place around three months after a youth was shot point-blank by a policeman at a traffic check outside Paris which sparked around week of rioting in the French capital city and elsewhere.

Hundreds of people, who were wearing black hoods, walked out of the main march of many thousands of people in Paris. They then broke the windows of a bank branch and attacked a police car, which was stuck in traffic, with objects, said an AFP reporter.

Paris police stated that the congregation of people attacked the police car with a crowbar and the vehicle was only released after an anti-riot police unit intervened.

Later, the BFMTV channel published a video and posted it on the internet which showed many masked protesters running after the car and kicking it repeatedly as one man smashed the window of the car using a crowbar.

A police officer got out of the car and brandished the assailant's service weapon, but did not fire it back and sat inside the vehicle.

"We see where anti-police hatred leads," wrote Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on X, formerly Twitter, as he denounced the "unacceptable violence" against the police.

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Police arrest three people

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said that they have arrested three people over the incident.

Unions said that around 80,000 people were expected to gather for protesting across France while responding to a call by the radical left which included the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, however, police claimed the number at 13,800.

Several associations and political parties have called demonstrations in various parts of France to protest racism and against alleged violence by police.

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