A police officer and five protesters were injured when violence erupted after about 4,000 people turned out for a demonstration in La Rochelle over the use of reservoirs to supply large-scale agriculture, local officials said.
Police fired teargas and brought in water cannon trucks and reinforcements to disperse the demonstrators after the unrest broke out on Saturday afternoon, with several shop fronts smashed and at least seven people arrested.
“A number of radical, extreme leftwing participants have attacked property and rampaged a supermarket,” said interior minister Gérald Darmanin on X. “It is hard to see a link to defence of the environment.”
Droughts in France have heightened tensions over water resources, and critics say building large reservoirs to feed agricultural irrigation is a wasteful practice that favours large farms.
On Saturday, the protesters gathered in front of a site belonging to Soufflet Négoce, a grains trading business owned by French cooperative group InVivo, before setting off on their march through the city.
In March last year, similar violence broke out during another protest over agricultural reservoirs in Sainte-Soline in western France.
Saturday’s unrest comes as the country has its security alert at its highest level ahead of the Olympic Games, which kick off with an opening ceremony on the River Seine on 26 July.
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