Biarritz:
Police fired water cannon at about 400 anti-capitalist protesters blocking roads in a town near the venue of the G7 summit in southwest France.
A few protesters threw rocks at police but the crowd in Bayonne was largely peaceful, with some activists dancing.
Police responded with warning shots and then water cannon. The incident took place near a bridge barricaded by police as part of extensive security measures around the Group of Summit meeting that opens Saturday.
Earlier on Saturday, a march against the Group of Seven summit has ended peacefully, after thousands of activists for various causes walked from southwest France into Spain under heavy security.
Regional police said no arrests or incidents were reported during Saturday’s march from Hendaye in France to Irun in Spain, and estimated some 9,000 people took part.
Protesters came from multiple countries to demonstrate for more action against climate change, for indigenous peoples, free trade deals and other causes. Some wore masks representing G-7 leaders meeting in nearby Biarritz.
Protester Gael Gilles, 30, told news agency Associated Press, “there is too much inequality in this world and I am here to demonstrate peacefully against this G7 … to tell (the leaders) that they do not go into the good direction on the climate and other things.”
