PARIS (AP) " A police officer has been injured amid skirmishes with activists during the evacuation of a French protest camp erected nearly a decade ago to block construction of an airport in western France.
The national gendarme service said the injured officer was hit in the eye with a flare and is not in life-threatening condition. It said one person has been arrested and scattered clashes occurred after 2,500 police moved into the site in Notre-Dame-des-Landes early Monday.
The French government in January abandoned plans for the airport after 50 years of debate, and gave squatters until spring to clear out.
But about 100 stayed in place, seeking to turn it into a "space of social, environmental and agricultural experimentation."
An unlikely combination of environmental activists, farmers and anarchists converged on the camp that sprang up in 2009.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that the police officer was hit with a flare and was not shot.