— Reuters pic NOTRE-DAME-DES-LANDES, April 9 — French police this morning started to evacuate hundreds of eco-activists and anarchists squatting on a site in western France that had been planned as a new airport, and which had sparked clashes with previous governments. The evacuation had started at 0400 GMT (12.00pm Singapore time), the French interior ministry said. On Monday, some 2,500 police officers conducted a raid at the site at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes, where a group of activists have been camping for years to prevent the construction of an airport, the plan for which had been dropped by the present government, headed by Emmanuel Macron, in January. Supporters of the airport plan, designed to handle 4 million passengers a year initially, said it would have helped economic development in the Loire-Atlantique region. They argued an old, inner-city airport 30 km (19 miles) to the south was congested and a security risk. But critics said the new airport would have been too costly, environmentally damaging and that there was another under-utilized airport 110 km (70 miles) to the north, near Rennes in Brittany.
Around 2,500 police armed with tear gas launch a raid in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France, in a bid to force the removal of 250 activists who have occupied the site of the proposed Aéroport du Grand Ouest for ten years to prevent its construction. The proposed airport is abandoned but the activists refuse to leave their community.