Paris: Police arrest scores of anti-gay marriage protesters
Around 70 protesters demonstrating against equal marriage have been arrested in Paris.
Reuters reports a police official saying that around 70 people were arrested early on Monday and placed in custody after they tried to set up a campsite outside the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, near the banks of the Seine river.
Another 19 protesters were stopped by police for identity checks late on Sunday as they waited for Interior Minister Manuel Valls to leave a concert hall in the capital.
Last Friday, the French Senate gave its approval to the country’s proposed same-sex marriage bill.
A final parliamentary vote is due to take place next Tuesday.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called for restraint after a demonstration last week in Paris’s Latin Quarter where riot police used tear gas to disperse protesters.
