French police break up 1,500-strong illegal rave

Clashes lead to a partygoer losing his hand and two police officers hospitalised

The participants defied an 11pm coronavirus curfew near Redon in Brittany. AFP

A partygoer lost his hand and five police officers were injured in France after an illegal, 1,500-strong rave was broken up overnight.

Some 400 police intervened in Brittany when a group attempted to set up the gathering in defiance of an 11pm Covid-19 curfew.

Local prefect Emmanuel Berthier said there were "very violent clashes" that lasted for seven hours.

Two of the five injured police officers had to be taken to hospital.

Mr Berthier said the "people had an objective, to confront the forces of public order".

He told AFP that the revellers threw "Molotov cocktails, metal balls and pieces of breeze block".

A 22-year-old man lost a hand in the violence.

Event organisers said police had chosen violence instead of dialogue by firing tear gas grenades.

Interior minister Gerald Darmanin cancelled events he had planned and was regularly keeping updated of the situation.

Local authorities had on Friday issued a legal order against the party, which came two days before the coronavirus curfew is set to be lifted as Covid-19 case numbers fall in France.

The rave had originally been set up in memory of a young man killed in nearby city Nantes two years ago during France's annual nationwide Fete de la Musique celebration.