02:50A brawl broke out between attendees at a rally for far-right French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, in Villepinte, on Sunday, as several hundred supporters waited for his arrival.
Punches and chairs were thrown at members of 'SOS Racisme' activists, leaving at least one injured and bloodied after they stood up wearing 'No to racism' t-shirts at the rally prompting the scuffles, according to the attendees.
"A row in front of us, there were many men that stood up to show their 'No to racism' t-shirts. It escalated all of a sudden and there was a stampede and we all thought we were going to be crushed," said one of the attendees. "It was a group of people pretending to be activists but they were just here for trouble."
One of the anti-Zemmour activists, however, stated, "We are convinced anti-racists. We just came to say that not everybody agreed [with Zemmour] and we wanted to peacefully oppose this meeting."
Police officers escorted injured people outside after attendees were seen throwing chairs and punching people in the crowd. As many as 12 'SOS Racisme' activists were removed from the rally after the violent scuffles.
France: Brawl breaks out at Eric Zemmour rally
A brawl broke out between attendees at a rally for far-right French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, in Villepinte, on Sunday, as several hundred supporters waited for his arrival.
Punches and chairs were thrown at members of 'SOS Racisme' activists, leaving at least one injured and bloodied after they stood up wearing 'No to racism' t-shirts at the rally prompting the scuffles, according to the attendees.
"A row in front of us, there were many men that stood up to show their 'No to racism' t-shirts. It escalated all of a sudden and there was a stampede and we all thought we were going to be crushed," said one of the attendees. "It was a group of people pretending to be activists but they were just here for trouble."
One of the anti-Zemmour activists, however, stated, "We are convinced anti-racists. We just came to say that not everybody agreed [with Zemmour] and we wanted to peacefully oppose this meeting."
Police officers escorted injured people outside after attendees were seen throwing chairs and punching people in the crowd. As many as 12 'SOS Racisme' activists were removed from the rally after the violent scuffles.
A brawl broke out between attendees at a rally for far-right French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, in Villepinte, on Sunday, as several hundred supporters waited for his arrival.
Punches and chairs were thrown at members of 'SOS Racisme' activists, leaving at least one injured and bloodied after they stood up wearing 'No to racism' t-shirts at the rally prompting the scuffles, according to the attendees.
"A row in front of us, there were many men that stood up to show their 'No to racism' t-shirts. It escalated all of a sudden and there was a stampede and we all thought we were going to be crushed," said one of the attendees. "It was a group of people pretending to be activists but they were just here for trouble."
One of the anti-Zemmour activists, however, stated, "We are convinced anti-racists. We just came to say that not everybody agreed [with Zemmour] and we wanted to peacefully oppose this meeting."
Police officers escorted injured people outside after attendees were seen throwing chairs and punching people in the crowd. As many as 12 'SOS Racisme' activists were removed from the rally after the violent scuffles.