Police ban ‘yellow vest’ protests on Champs-Elysees

PARIS: Paris police said on Friday that "yellow vest" protests would be banned on the Champs-Elysees on Saturday, a week after hundreds of anti-government demonstrators rioted and looted shops on the iconic Paris avenue.

Protesters will also be stopped from entering streets surrounding the Arc de Triomphe, at the top of the avenue, as well as several nearby areas, including the presidential Elysee Palace and the National Assembly, the Paris prefect’s office said. "There are serious reasons to believe that violence and damages are likely during the scheduled demonstrations," the office said.

Similar bans were planned in other major cities, including Toulouse, in southwestern France, where officials said the main city square will be out of bounds for demonstrators. Protests will also be outlawed in much of the southern city of Nice, where Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Sunday.

The Paris prefect’s office said anyone defying the bans would face fines, part of tough new measures vowed by the government to prevent another flare-up of violence. In other areas of Paris, "the right to demonstrate, which is a fundamental freedom, will be allowed", but "any riotous groups will be immediately dispersed," police warned.

Last Saturday, police appeared to hang back as hundreds of violent protesters rampaged along the Champs-Elysees, burning and looting more than 100 businesses in unrest that cost the Paris police chief his job.