Five Air France employees arrested after violent demonstrations

Five Air France workers have been arrested on suspicion of attacking company directors, after they ripped off executives’ shirts during a protest against mass job cuts in the company, the Guardian reports.

The paper added that police arrived at the homes of four of the suspects on Monday morning, and another suspect was reportedly arrested later. The five men reportedly work for Air France’s cargo and freight wing.

According to reports, the men were allegedly identified them from footage of airline staff forcing their way into a directors’ meeting where 2, 900 redundancies were being announced, and officers said more arrests could follow.

Images and videos of protesters storming the meeting made headlines around the world on Monday. Members of the executive committee were meeting to discuss plans to restructure the loss-making airline when furious staff attacked two human resources directors, shredding their jackets and shirts and leaving one scrambling over a wire fence bare-chested apart from his tie.

The Guardian added that some seven people – five staff members and two police officers – were injured, one of them seriously, in the scenes at the airline’s headquarters near Roissy/Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris.

At least 10 legal complaints have been lodged by six security staff, three company directors and Air France, and the company has launched an internal investigation to identify the attackers, besides the judicial inquiry.

The arrested men are accused of “wilful violence in a meeting and hindering the conduct of a works council”, an offence that carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. Air France is also suing for damage to its property.