VIDEO - Over 500 French firefighters set off fireworks and burned tires before storming and occupying a railway station in Lille in the latest in a series of escalating protests against the local council’s budget cuts.
Staff in full uniform gathered outside the fire station of the northern city at 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning, and launched a firework into the sky from a model fire truck to start off their procession. As they marched through the center of town holding union flags, more and more people joined the march. Arriving outside the train station, the firemen then formed a cordon, while several started piling on tires, and setting them ablaze, to create an acrid smoke that enveloped the entire neighborhood. Local police, warned in advance about the demonstration, cordoned off the protesters. But then something unexpected happened. On the command of one of the protesters, hundreds of firemen suddenly rushed up the stairs of the train station, before invading the terminal building itself. Streaming through it, they accessed the tracks, and lay down on them.