Hordes Of Yellow Vest Protesters Crash French Bastille Day Parade, Battle With Police
French police clashed with yellow vest protesters on Champs Elysees avenue in Paris following a Bastille Day military parade Sunday.
Hundreds of demonstrators from the yellow vest movement occupied Champs Elysees avenue after the roadway was reopened to traffic following the parade, Reuters reported.
Police reportedly fired tear gas into the group of protesters, who were attempting to block the roadway with metal barricades and other obstructions. Protesters also reportedly set bins on fire and threw projectiles at the police lines during the melee that ensued.
Reuters says it obtained a video showing a police officer being kicked to the ground by a protester and beaten after he had used pepper spray to subdue another group of protesters.
Police clash with yellow vest protesters after Bastille Day paradehttps://t.co/06Hh9Yt421 pic.twitter.com/I7H0ZPiZR5
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 14, 2019
More than 4,000 members of the French armed services took part in the military parade, a national tradition that began following World War I, the BBC reported.
The yellow vest movement began as a nationwide protest against fuel price hikes, later becoming a more general anti-Macron administration movement. French President Emmanuel Macron had reportedly already left the parade grounds by the time Sunday’s demonstrations broke out.
French authorities preemptively banned the yellow vest demonstrators from the parade grounds, though the ban did not stop the several hundred that showed up anyway.
Some 200 protesters had attempted to occupy Champs Elysees avenue, though by Sunday evening order had been restored, Paris Police chief Didier Lallement told journalists during a patrol of the boulevard.
Police detained over 150 yellow vest protesters for participating in the unauthorized protest, according to police, the BBC reported.
More conflict is anticipated for Sunday night when the Bastille Day fireworks ceremony is scheduled to occur, Lallement said.
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