Corsica brawl: Four hurt in clashes on French beach 2016

Corsica brawl: Four hurt in clashes on French beach 2016

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Image copyrightAFP

Image captionPolice could be seen holding back protesters in Bastia on Sunday

An incident on a beach on the French island of Corsica on Saturday sparked clashes that left four people injured and three cars burnt out.

Witnesses said the brawl between locals and a party of bathers of Northern African origin began after the bathers objected to photos being taken.

Some of those involved were armed with hatchets and harpoons, a witness said.

The head of the regional executive, Gilles Simeoni, appealed for calm.

The French interior ministry issued a statement confirming that four people, including a pregnant woman, had received non-life threatening injuries as a result of the brawl.

Investigations had yet to establish the circumstances and motives behind the disorder, the ministry said.

The incident took place on a creek near the village of Sisco, Upper Corsica.

Tension has grown this summer between local communities and Muslims of North African origin in the south of France, especially following the massacre of 85 people by a lorry-driver in the city of Nice on 14 July.

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At the end of last month, an outlawed Corsican paramilitary group said that Islamist militants against targeting their island.

Earlier this week, the resort town of Cannes controversially banned the wearing of the Islamic bathing costume for women, the burkini.

'Hatchets and harpoon'

French media report that the trouble began around 1815 (1615 GMT) when tourists took photos of women bathing - one report quotes a girl as saying the women were wearing burkinis.

According to the centre-right daily Le Figaro (in French), some of the older men in the bathing party attacked a group of local teenagers on the beach with hatchets.

When the teenagers' parents arrived from the village, two of them were injured with harpoons. Villagers allegedly then set alight cars belonging to the bathers.

Another French daily, the left-of-centre Le Monde, reports (in French) that one man was injured twice by a harpoon after his son was beaten up. Stones and bottles were also thrown.

Two fathers from among the bathing party were also injured during the brawl, the paper adds.

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According to Le Monde newspaper, three "Muslim families" were involved in the brawl.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve condemned the violence and also appealed for calm.

On Sunday, hundreds of people held a protest in Bastia, the capital of Upper Corsica.

According to local newspaper Corse-Matin, the demonstrators gathered outside the prefect's office before heading for a housing estate, where some of those involved in Saturday's brawl were said to live.

Riot police could be seen pushing them back.

~HappyTimes365.blogspot.com