A convoy protesting COVID-19 restrictions breached police defences and drove into central Paris on Saturday, snarling traffic around the Arc de Triomphe and on the Champs Elysees, as police fired tear gas at demonstrators.
Protesters in cars, campervans, tractors and other vehicles had converged on Paris from Lille, Perpignan, Nice and other cities late on Friday, despite warnings from Paris authorities that they would be barred from entering the capital.
Inspired by horn-blaring "Freedom Convoy" demonstrations in Canada, dozens of vehicles slipped through the police cordon, impeding traffic around the 19th-century arch and the top of the boutique-lined Champs Elysees, a magnet for tourists.
Inside the city's limits, motorists in the "Freedom Convoy" waved tricolour flags and honked in defiance of the police ban.
On the Champs Elysees, clouds of tear gas swirled through the terraces of bars and restaurants.
Reuters
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