Daily Times

Five police officers were injured overnight in western France as they broke up a 1,500-strong illegal rave, authorities said Saturday, with one partygoer losing a hand in the clashes.

Defying an 11 pm coronavirus curfew, the group had attempted to set up the party at a horse racing track near Redon in Brittany. There were “very violent clashes” when 400 police intervened, local prefect Emmanuel Berthier said. Two of the injured police officers had to be taken to the hospital in Redon, Berthier said. Other officials told AFP that the group threw “molotov cocktails, boules balls and pieces of breeze block”. They added that one of the partygoers, a 22-year-old man, had lost a hand in the violence.

“There hasn’t been any music since last night,” but “people taking part in the illegal rave are still on the scene,” the prefect’s office told AFP early Saturday. Local authorities had on Friday issued a legal order against the party, which came two days before the coronavirus curfew is set to be lifted as Covid-19 case numbers fall in France.

The rave had originally been set up in memory of a young man killed in nearby city Nantes two years ago during France’s annual nationwide Fete de la Musique celebration. Steve Maia Canico fell into the Loire river when police moved to break up a gathering.