Some 2,500 partygoers attended an illegal New Year rave in northwestern France last night, violently clashing with police who failed to stop it.
The event sparked concern the underground gathering could spread coronavirus, authorities said today. The revellers had set up the illegal rave in Lieuron, south of Rennes in Brittany after skirmishes with police, according to a statement from the local prefecture.
Many were still on the site today as a sanitary cordon was thrown up around it. Local gendarmes tried to "prevent this event but faced fierce hostility from many party-goers" who set one of their cars on fire and threw bottles and stones, it said.