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Police and youths have been clashing in low-income Paris suburbs where residents claim that officers have used heavy-handed measures to enforce France’s strict lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The rioters set vehicles on fire and shot fireworks at officers, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas in the suburbs of Villeneuve-la-Garenne and Aulnay-sous-Bois, witnesses and police told Agence France-Presse on Monday.
The tensions were ignited early Saturday when a motorcyclist was injured at a police checkpoint in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, where about 50 angry bystanders gathered after the incident.
Police said the group targeted officers with “projectiles” in a nearly two-hour standoff.
The 30-year-old motorcyclist suffered a broken leg and had to undergo surgery after he crashed into the open door of a police car, according to AFP.
Residents have accused police of deliberately opening the door so the rider would crash into it.
The man will file a complaint against the cops, his family and a lawyer told AFP, while prosecutors have launched an investigation.
Police on Monday launched tear gas and used batons against residents in Villeneuve-la-Garenne as fireworks exploded in the street, the Daily Mail reported.
The mayhem also spread to nearby Aulnay-sous-Bois, where officers said they were “ambushed” by residents in a district made up mostly of immigrants who claim they are regularly subjected to harsh police treatment.
Police said they were targeted by people using fireworks as projectiles and arrested four residents.
Rights group SOS Racisme has issued a statement calling on authorities to shed full light on the incident with the biker, and urging police restraint “in this time of confinement and tensions.”
Prosecutors opened an investigation earlier this month into the death in detention of a man arrested for allegedly violating the home confinement measures.
Police said the 33-year-old man, who his sister said suffered from schizophrenia, resisted arrest.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said police had carried out 13.5 million checks since the lockdown started on March 17. More than 800,000 people were written up for violations.
