World News | French Activists Wield Axes, Machetes at Reservoir Protest

Paris, Mar 25 (AP) French police and environmental activists fought violent pitched battles on Saturday around a giant agricultural irrigation reservoir in rural western France.

The interior minister reported more than 30 people injured and said police detonated more than 4,000 non-lethal dispersion grenades as they fended off hundreds of protesters, some armed with machetes, axes and gasoline bombs.

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The clashes around the reservoir being built in the rural community of Sainte-Soline highlighted increasing pressure on precious water resources in the face of climate change.

French authorities argue that giant irrigation reservoirs are necessary to allow farmers to continue growing food crops when droughts are becoming more common. Critics say the reservoirs sustain ecologically unsustainable types of industrial farming and imprison water that would otherwise naturally irrigate soils and feed rivers and streams.

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Video footage showed protesters advancing in clouds of tear gas, police vehicles burning and people hurling projectiles at police lines.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said two critically injured people — one of them a police officer, the other a protester — were transported by helicopter for hospital treatment.

He said 23 police officers and six demonstrators suffered lighter injuries. But protest organisers said they counted dozens of injured in their ranks. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)