Paris police shoot dead two dead as car ‘runs over’ them amid protests against Macron’s re-election – World News

The bloodbath happened shortly after Emmanuel Macron was re-elected president on Sunday night on the old Pont Neuf in the center of the city

Police in Paris have shot dead two people and seriously injured a third after a car failed to stop on the French capital’s oldest bridge.

The bloodbath happened shortly after Emmanuel Macron was re-elected president on Sunday night on the old Pont Neuf in the center of the city.

“Just after midnight, a car speeded toward police and refused to stop,” an investigative source said.

“One of the police officers opened fire, killing two people and injuring a third.”

In the early morning hours of Monday, an examining magistrate visited the crime scene, which had been cordoned off due to traffic.

The IGNP Investigative Unit – a unit that deals with potential police crimes – was also present.

Footage from the scene of the shooting released to social media shows police cars and ambulances with lights flashing parked behind cordons while officers stand guard and sirens wail in the background.

In one shot, the Eiffel Tower can be seen in the background while police officers form a group in the foreground.

News of the shooting follows reports of violence on the streets of Paris as people across the country protested following the re-election of President Emmanuel Macron.

Riot police attacked and sprayed tear gas at demonstrators in central Paris protesting against the re-election of President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, social media footage showed.

According to images on Twitter, the police tried to break up a group of mostly young people who had gathered in the central Chatelet neighborhood to protest.

One clip showed protesters chanting in front of the famous Monument to the Republic in Paris, while some climbed the statue to scrawl political slogans.

Meanwhile, in Paris’s Place de la République, officers in full riot gear – with shields and batons – were seen retreating after initially crushing crowds.

Across the country in Toulouse, residents who had gathered in the municipal rubbish bins on the street were set on fire in protest at the election result.

Also in Lyon, protesters turned out in large numbers and marched through red smoke after firing flares.

Macron defeated far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a runoff election earlier Sunday, winning a second five-year term and avoiding what would otherwise have been a major political uproar.

Although Macron won by a comfortable margin, the abstention rate was expected to settle at its highest level since 1969, as a sizeable proportion of voters chose not to vote for either Macron or Le Pen.

Between the first ballot and Sunday’s runoff, students protested in front of the Sorbonne in Paris and other universities, expressing their disillusionment with the election on offer.

According to official forecasts, Macron is on course to win the French presidential election.