WORLD
Cabbies block roads as France hit by multiple strikes
Baku, January 28, AZERTAC
Angry French taxi drivers blocked key roads with burning tyres and hundreds of flights were cancelled as air traffic controllers joined civil servants, hospital staff and teachers for a "Black Tuesday" of strikes, according to AFP.
At Paris's Orly airport, one protester was injured when a shuttle bus forced its way through a blockade, with the driver saying he "panicked". Police arrested the driver.
Some 2,100 taxi drivers, furious over upstart competitors such as Uber, blocked the capital's ring road at a key western intersection, lighting fires and throwing smoke bombs.
One Uber driver had his car splattered with eggs and kicked by protesters, an AFP journalist said.
"Today our survival is at stake, we are fed up of meetings and negotiations," said Ibrahima Sylla, spokesman of the Taxis de France collective.
A total of 14 protesters were arrested around the capital for violence and lighting fires, police said.