Chaotic was how tourists and Parisians ended Thursday in Paris as the protests against ride-booking app Uber turned violent in the French capital with 10 arrests, seven officers hurt and 70 vehicles damaged.
Taxi drivers in Paris blocked all traffic at Porte Maillot, an important access point to the main Paris thoroughfares to tell the government that they are unhappy with the illegal operations of Uber taxis, the New York Times reported
It was estimated that some 3,000 taxi drivers participated in the strike held nationwide in France, according to Agence France Presse (AFP) as featured on Yahoo News. AFP added that in the city of Lyon, eight people were arrested.
This is the latest of the challenges facing San Francisco-based Uber, especially its low-cost UberPop service that France's taxi associations are deeming as unfair.
Nader Moghimi, 49, told Agence France Presse that the government of France should break "the economic terrorism initiated by Uber, whose lower prices, flexible hours and the way it is operating outside French law has been hindering business."
France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after meeting taxi drivers' unions following a fraught day: "UberPOP is an illegal service, it must be closed down. ... The vehicles of UberPOP drivers should be systematically impounded when they are openly breaking the law."
Cazeneuve added, however, that a peaceful resolution and "governing the country will never be done by the law of the jungle."
One of the taxi drivers' representatives, Ibrahima Sylla told AFP that the minister's words are "promises, again" and said the drivers were considering continuing the protests.
