Funviralpark
Paris
CNN
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Clashes between protesters and police erupted in central Paris on Saturday as members of the local Kurdish community took to the streets to demand justice after Friday’s deadly shooting at the Kurdish Cultural Center.
Live images from CNN affiliate BFMTV and news outlets Reuters and AFP show road damage and smoke rising from cars as demonstrators clash with police.
The ongoing skirmish is taking place in an area near Place de la Republique in the center of the French capital, not far from the Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Center, the Friday shooting range.
CNN reached out to the Paris Police Department and the Kurdish Community Center for comment.
On Friday, a gunman killed three people and wounded three others in a possible racist-backed attack at the cultural center on rue Enghien in central Paris.
All three victims who lost their lives were Kurdish, a lawyer for the center confirmed to CNN.
Saturday’s march in central Paris, organized in the aftermath of the shootings, was canceled earlier than planned by France’s Kurdistan Democratic Council (CDKF) due to clashes.
“We (CDKF) have put an end to the march in order to avoid damage and injury to people in Place de la Republique,” spokesperson Behrivan Philat told BFMTV on Saturday following the actions of the protesters.
The march was originally scheduled to start on the Place de la Republique, with permission from the Paris police.
Filat told BFMTV that things turned violent shortly after police fired tear gas and the march began.
Many protesters remain in Place de la Republique and Place de la Bastille, the final stop of the march, even after the event was cancelled. BFMTV’s live footage shows that the crash in the Place de la Bastille has since subsided, with several cars flipping over and bursting into flames.
At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron and Interior Minister Gerard Dalmanin, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez was scheduled to meet with leaders of the Kurdish community at 10 a.m. local time today, Paris police said in a statement. Stated.
On Friday, Darmanin said France would guarantee the rights of Kurds who wanted to protest and vowed to step up police around Kurdish sites.
A 69-year-old French man with a long criminal record has been arrested as a suspect in Friday’s attacks.
Mr Dalmanin told journalists at the scene that he was not part of a police-monitored far-right group. “He (the suspect) clearly wanted to attack a foreigner,” the minister added.
The shooting has not been designated a terrorist attack, but Paris prosecutor Laure Becqueau said on Friday that investigators had not ruled out a possible “racist motive” behind the shooting.
“When it comes to racist motives, of course, these elements are part of an investigation that has just begun,” Beckow said.
French President Emmanuel Macron took to Twitter to lament the “heinous attacks” that “targeted the French Kurds”.
