A police officer and 5 protesters have been injured when violence erupted after about 4,000 folks turned out for an illustration in La Rochelle over the usage of reservoirs to produce large-scale agriculture, native officers mentioned.
Police fired teargas and introduced in water cannon vehicles and reinforcements to disperse the demonstrators after the unrest broke out on Saturday afternoon, with a number of store fronts smashed and a minimum of seven folks arrested.
“Quite a lot of radical, excessive leftwing contributors have attacked property and rampaged a grocery store,” mentioned inside minister Gérald Darmanin on X. “It’s laborious to see a hyperlink to defence of the atmosphere.”
Droughts in France have heightened tensions over water sources, and critics say constructing massive reservoirs to feed agricultural irrigation is a wasteful follow that favours massive farms.
On Saturday, the protesters gathered in entrance of a website belonging to Soufflet Négoce, a grains buying and selling enterprise owned by French cooperative group InVivo, earlier than setting off on their march by means of the town.
In March final 12 months, related violence broke out throughout one other protest over agricultural reservoirs in Sainte-Soline in western France.
Saturday’s unrest comes because the nation has its safety alert at its highest degree forward of the Olympic Video games, which kick off with a gap ceremony on the River Seine on 26 July.
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