Paris rocked by climate protest

PARIS:

French police on Saturday blocked climate activists from holding a demonstration in central Paris on the first official day of the Olympic Games.

Protesters from Extinction Rebellion (XR), once notorious for shutting down bridges over the Thames river in London, had planned to occupy the Pont des Arts bridge over the Seine, which had hosted the Games' opening ceremony only hours earlier.

Security forces are on high alert nationwide after saboteurs early Friday disrupted train travel throughout France. The stint on the bridge, which organisers previously said would be "more visible than disruptive", was called off after police kettled a group of journalists preparing to cover the protest. "The French government has deployed great resources to block our special Olympic action," Extinction Rebellion France said in a statement on X.

"Our democracy burns and we are watching the flame of Paris 2024."

Activists are calling for more participative democracy and the creation of a citizen assembly to design a new climate-focused constitution for France, which finds itself in a political impasse following elections earlier this month.