The clashes, in Sisco, on the north of the Mediterranean Island, a province of France, spanned two day, involved weapons and saw at least three cars burnt.
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Trouble broke out on Saturday at about 5.15pm United Kingdom time when tourists took pictures of women bathing – one of them reportedly in a Burkini.
The head of the regional executive, Gilles Simeoni, appealed for calm. The girl said the young Corsicans’ families then took to the streets and clashed with the North Africans.
Investigations had yet to establish the circumstances and motives behind the disorder, the ministry said.
The cars were reportedly the property of local Muslim families, whose homes were attacked with bottles and stones as news of the attacks spread.
Things got out of hand when young men of North African origin harangued the tourist who took the pictures, prompting local young people to intervene in defence of the visitor.
Last month Corsican lawmakers called on the French state to close down radical mosques on the island, hours after an underground separatist movement issued a threat against Islamic extremists.
It should be noted that the French Riviera resorts of Cannes and Villeneuve-Loubet have already banned burkinis.
According to the newspaper Le Figaro (in French), some of the older men in the bathing party had attacked a group of local teenagers on the beach with hatchets.
North African women slashed several vehicle tyres, while locals set fire to two cars and overturned another that belonged to immigrant families. In addition to the pregnant woman, the injured included one more woman, a child, and a man. BFMTV reported, citing its sources.
On Sunday, hundreds of people held a protest in Bastia, the capital of Upper Corsica.
When the teenagers’ parents arrived from the village, two of them were injured with harpoons.
Riot police were called to the scene on Saturday and the French interior minister later called for calm.
The demonstration then heading for a housing estate, where some of those involved in Saturday’s brawl were said to live.
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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.
