More than 100 wives and partners of police have protested in Paris against attacks on police following the killing of an officer on the Champs Elysees.

The Angry Police Wives group marched through the city two days after Xavier Jugelé was shot twice in the head by convicted criminal Karim Cheurfi.

Separately, police fired tear gas amid confrontations after a trade union demonstration in eastern Paris calling for a "social first round" of voting.

France goes to the polls on Sunday.

In another incident, French media said a man with a knife had been arrested at the Gare du Nord station. Police have not said if the incident is terrorism-related.

Candidates in the presidential election have been accused of exploiting the Champs Elysees attack politically.

Two other officers were wounded before Cheurfi was shot dead.

The killer had spoken about wanting to kill police but had had no apparent link to Islamist radicalism before the attack, prosecutors said. A note defending so-called Islamic State (IS) was found near his body.

At the end of the pro-police demonstration, marchers released black balloons signifying police killed in the line of duty and pink balloons for the families they left behind.

Some were carrying placards saying "don't touch my cop", a twist on a well-known French anti-racism slogan.

One placard also said "enough police officers killed and burned", referring not only to Mr Jugele's death but also a firebomb attack on a police car carrying four officers by suspected drug dealers in a poor suburb of Paris last October.

Two of the officers were seriously wounded in the attack.

Police officers have also been hurt in recent protests over allegations of police brutality.

Last month three officers were injured in protests after a Chinese man was shot dead by officers. In February protesters attacked a police station amid widespread anger over the alleged rape of a young black man by French police.

Who was the victim?

Police officer Xavier Jugelé, 37, was an active campaigner for gay rights, French media report. He was in a civil partnership and did not have children.

Originally from the Loire Valley region in central France, he had been serving in the capital since 2014, French daily Liberation writes (in French).

He was deployed on the night of the November 2015 attacks in Paris to the Bataclan concert hall, returning the following year on the night the venue reopened.

The BBC's Nick Garnett interviewed him at the time. "I want to celebrate life and say 'no' to terrorism," he told our reporter.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by BBC NEWS

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