Death in Belgium road accident linked to 'yellow vest' protest: official

Accident happened in the Erquelinnes area of Belgium at a junction between N40 and N54 roads

LILLE, FRANCE: A driver died in Belgium near the border with France on Friday evening after hitting a truck which had slowed down due to a blockade by "yellow vest" protesters, a local government official said.

The accident happened in the Erquelinnes area of Belgium at a junction between the N40 and N54 roads "after a slowdown in France caused by the 'yellow vests'," the local government office in northern France said.

Around 8,000 police were on duty in Paris on Saturday, the same number as last weekend, backed up by 14 armoured vehicles, water cannons and horses which are used for crowd control.

Around 90,000 security forces were mobilised last Saturday across France and 2,000 people were detained, around half of them in Paris.

"That people demonstrate, no problem, but the vandalism is appalling," Maria, who manages the Le Vin Coeur restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris told AFP on Saturday morning.

Like thousands of other business and restaurant owners across the capital, she was apprehensive and ready to pull down her shutters and close at the first whiff of tear gas.



Many of the "yellow vest" figureheads, along with leaders of the far-left Unbowed France party, urged protesters to turn out on Saturday to pressure the government into making further concessions.

Others suggested that the mostly small town and rural protesters should show resolve by rallying in the regions rather than heading for the capital.

France "needs calm, order and to go back to its normal functioning," Macron said Friday.

On Thursday, government spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux had called on protesters to stay at home on what is normally a busy shopping weekend ahead of Christmas.



"It would be better if everyone could go about their business calmly on Saturday, before the year-end celebrations with their families, instead of demonstrating and putting our security forces to work once again," he said.

He was speaking in the wake of an attack Tuesday in the eastern city of Strasbourg, which left four dead and 12 wounded.

In a bid to end the protests, Macron announced a package of measures on Monday estimated by economists to cost up to 15 billion euros ($17 billion).

He cancelled the planned fuel tax hikes, offered a rise in the minimum wage, tax relief for pensioners and tax-free overtime for workers in 2019.