01:59France: "No lawless zones" in Corsica, demands Mayor of Ajaccio
Corsican political figures including the President of the Corsican Executive Gilles Simeoni and Mayor of Ajaccio Laurent Marcangeli, visited the fire-fighting crews who were attacked over the Christmas period in Ajaccio, Monday.
"It's simple: laws and rules must be applied in certain areas the way they are in others," said Marcangeli in reference to the attack by dozens of hooded youths against the fire crew, which took place in the low-income Jardins de l'Empereur housing estate on Christmas Eve. Several fire fighters were hurt and a window broken in a fire truck when the youths threw projectiles and attacked the crew with bats and golf clubs.
The visit comes in the wake of days of street protests directed ostensibly against "criminals", but focused on housing estates with large populations of first and second generation Arab migrants. On Friday, protesters shouting racist slogans vandalised a Muslim prayer hall and burned copies of the Qoran, in an attack French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said showed signs of "racism and xenophobia."
01:59Corsican political figures including the President of the Corsican Executive Gilles Simeoni and Mayor of Ajaccio Laurent Marcangeli, visited the fire-fighting crews who were attacked over the Christmas period in Ajaccio, Monday.
"It's simple: laws and rules must be applied in certain areas the way they are in others," said Marcangeli in reference to the attack by dozens of hooded youths against the fire crew, which took place in the low-income Jardins de l'Empereur housing estate on Christmas Eve. Several fire fighters were hurt and a window broken in a fire truck when the youths threw projectiles and attacked the crew with bats and golf clubs.
The visit comes in the wake of days of street protests directed ostensibly against "criminals", but focused on housing estates with large populations of first and second generation Arab migrants. On Friday, protesters shouting racist slogans vandalised a Muslim prayer hall and burned copies of the Qoran, in an attack French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said showed signs of "racism and xenophobia."