Man harpooned during brawl over burkini beach photos

A pregnant woman has been injured and a man hurt with a harpoon after a fight over a burkini on a French beach.

The brawl on Saturday, one day after a local ban on wearing the Islamic beachwear in Cannes was upheld by a court, was reportedly triggered by a tourist in Corsica photographing Muslims wearing the costumes.

The local mayor, Ange-Pierre Vivoni, told TF1 television some beach-goers of North African origin objected to having their pictures taken. A group of men harangued the tourist, who was then defended by a rival gang of young locals.

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A group of older men of North African origin are then said to have arrived, some armed with hatchets and harpoons to get involved in what became a riot.

The unrest lasted for several hours, with three cars burnt and four people taken to hospital, one with a harpoon wound. Among the injured was a pregnant woman. Riot police were deployed to control the violence.

Sunday march

Despite interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve appealing for calm, tensions remained high on Sunday, when riot police had to hold back a crowd of 500 locals who tried to enter an area of the town of Bastia, where a high percentage of immigrants live.

The crowd, who chanted: "To arms, this is our place and we will go where we want", were kept out of the area and eventually dispersed.

Tensions between French communities of north African and non-Muslim origin have grown since the massacre in Nice on 14 July, says the Daily Mail.

Some commentators fear the new ban on burkinis on Cannes beaches will make matters even worse.

The city's head of municipal services, Thierry Migoule, defended the decision at the weekend. He said: "We are not talking about banning the wearing of religious symbols on the beach, but ostentatious clothing which refers to an allegiance to terrorist movements which are at war with us.

"I'm simply banning a uniform that is the symbol of Islamist extremism."

The French Human Rights League has labelled the ban an "abuse of law" and said politicians needed to calm their "discriminatory fervour and defend the spirit of the republic".