Parisian taxi drivers have long made their anti-Uber feelings clear, normally through the medium of broken windows and slashed tires. But taxi drivers protesting against Uber this morning took things a step further, attacking passenger-carrying cars and burning other (empty) Uber vehicles.
Reports indicate that this morning, taxi drivers attempted to more or less shut down the city in protest: road access to the capital’s main airports was “completely blocked”, and the ring-road around the city shut down by burning tires. Isolated reports of attacks against Uber cars have also emerged, with singer Courtney Love live-tweeting an attack on her vehicle en route to the airport:
Dude @kanyewest we may turn back to the airport and hide out with u.picketers just attacked our car #ParisUberStrike pic.twitter.com/MtanurybOO
— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) June 25, 2015
they’ve ambushed our car and are holding our driver hostage. they’re beating the cars with metal bats. this is France?? I’m safer in Baghdad
— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) June 25, 2015
In response, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve ordered Paris police to issue a decree banning the activity of UberPOP, “given the serious public order disturbances and development of this illegal activity”, Reuters reports. UberPOP (UberX in all but name) was provisionally declared illegal back in November, but Uber issued a constitutional challenge, the result of which is expected soon.
Picture: AP Images