Thousands Rally Outside US Embassy in Paris (+Video)

Demonstrators in Paris have tried to gather in front of the US embassy, defying restrictions on planned gatherings imposed by authorities in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Aljazeera reported.

They were met by riot police. The embassy was sealed off behind an imposing ring of metal barriers and roadblocks, but many protesters gathered nearby.

"You can fine me 10,000 or 20,000 times, the revolt will happen anyway," Egountchi Behanzin, a founder of the Black African Defense League, told officers who stopped him to check his ID documents before he approached the building, according to AP.

The protesters carried signs, reading “Black Lives Matter” and “I can’t breathe,” referring to what happened to African American man George Floyd who died in late May after a Minneapolis police officer detaining him knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.

“Justice for Adama” was also among the slogans chanted by the crowd. Adama Traore was a 24-year-old black man who died in French police custody in 2016. His case is still under investigation, but media reports claim that he was suffocated by officers as they tried to restrain him. Adama’s relatives already said that his death was the same as Floyd’s.

The protesters then moved to nearby Champ de Mars where their numbers increased and chanting continued at the foot of the Eiffel Tower