International News

Strike-hit France smashes blockades as fuel runs dry

DOUCHY-LES-MINES, France, (APP/AFP): French police fired
water cannon Wednesday to disperse scores of activists blocking a northeastern oil depot, as pumps ran dry and unions stepped up strikes in a bitter battle over labour reforms.
With a fifth of petrol stations in France running low, police moved
in to break a blockade at the depot of Douchy-les-Mines near the Belgian border that had been in place since Thursday.
“They cleared out all our barricades.The depot was unblocked without
confrontation,” said Willy Dans, a spokesman for the local branch of the SUD
union.
“The police moved in quickly. They used water cannon. We got the
feeling they were tense,” Dans told AFP.
Watched by around 80 striking workers, firefighters extinguished
burning tyres that were blocking roads and sending thick plumes of smoke billowing into the air.
Most petrol stations in the area were empty, forcing motorists to hop
over the border to Belgium to fill up, reported an AFP photographer on the ground.