PROSECUTORS are investigating after a man was left with severe head injuries during an anti-bullfighting protest in Rion-des-Landes when gendarmes cleared around 100 protesters from the bullring.
The protest, organised by the Fondation Brigitte Bardot, Comité Radicalement AntiCorrida Europe and Animaux en Péril, saw several dozen protesters taking over the bullring and linking arms to stop the event.
Gendarmes moved in to clear the demonstration and one man in his 60s was severely injured when corrida supporters joined in.
Brigitte Bardot has strongly condemned the “brutality and savagery” of the gendarmes and some supporters.
She added: “If the barbarity of the torture of bulls and their bloody deaths are tolerated in certain regions in the name of an obsolete, ridiculous, indecent and sadistic tradition, then the right to protest peacefully should also equally and legally be respected in a democracy.”
Eight people in all were injured in the demonstration, with one man airlifted to hospital in Bordeaux. He has been placed in an artificial coma because of his head injuries.
Legal complaints have been lodged by both bullfighting fans and anti-corrida protesters after the events.
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