The events in question occurred slightly after 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, on the Boulevard de l\u2019H\u00f4pital in Paris\u2019 13th arrondissement. The street was filled with thousands of protesters, a portion of the more than 40,000 people demonstrating in the city that day, when riot police fired tear gas into the densely-packed crowd and triggered a wave of panic.<\/span><\/p>\n A reporter for the right-wing daily Le Figaro<\/em>, Wladimir Garcin-Berson, who was present at the scene, tweeted that there was a \u201cwave of tear gas, the air became unbreathable.\u201d Videos posted subsequently on social media show that protesters who were fleeing the choking gas forced open the metal gate of the hospital compound. Several dozen people attempted to take refuge inside one of the hospital buildings, but were turned away by staff, and then arrested.<\/span><\/p>\n Within a few hours, the incident had been transformed, in the words of French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, into an \u201cattack\u201d on the hospital by rioters. In a press conference on Wednesday evening, in which he sought to conflate the mass protests with small groups of black bloc anarchists, Castaner declared that \u201cpeople have attacked a hospital. The nurses were forced to defend the urgent care area. Our police forces immediately intervened to save the urgent care area.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n An hour later, Castaner tweeted, \u201cHere at Piti\u00e9-Salp\u00eatri\u00e8re, a hospital has been attacked. The health care staff have been assaulted. And a police officer sent to protect them has been injured.\u201d The tweet was accompanied by wide-angle and close-up pictures of a resolute Castaner shaking hands with riot police and walking through the hospital ward with health staff.<\/span><\/p>\n Photo tweeted by Interior Minister Castaner on Wednesday night. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n Macron\u2019s Minister of Solidarity and Health Agn\u00e8s Buzyn called the event \u201cunspeakable\u201d and \u201cundignified.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMaybe there were people who wanted to take refuge, and others who wanted to steal,\u201d she said, without providing any evidence for the latter claim. As if to emphasize the alleged blood lust of the protesters, news reports emerged that a police officer was being treated at the same time in the same hospital for an injury\u2014implying that he or she could have been the target of a coordinated revenge attack.<\/span><\/p>\n Media in France and internationally immediately repeated and amplified the Macron government\u2019s lies.<\/span><\/p>\n The French edition of The<\/em> Local<\/em> published a report headlined: \u201c\u2018Unspeakable\u2019: Why did dozens of protesters burst into a Paris hospital during May 1st demonstrations?\u201d The Murdoch-owned Sun<\/em> in Britain reported \u201cDANGER TO LIFE: Fury as Yellow Vest protesters storm Paris hospital where Princess Diana died.\u201d Le Figaro<\/em> declared that \u201cdozens of \u2018black blocs\u2019\u201d had broken into the hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n The media\u2019s role as a mouthpiece for state propaganda was best exemplified by the public news channel France Info. Its report, headlined \u201cIntrusion at Piti\u00e9-Salp\u00eatri\u00e8re: \u2018Discussion was not possible,\u2019 hospital director says,\u201d featured a banner photo of a hooded man attacking a gate with a metal pole<\/span><\/p>\n Banner photo published by France info. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n Within hours of the article\u2019s publication, the photographer who took the picture, Geoffrey VdH, tweeted that the photo was taken the same day in a completely different location, outside a Paris police headquarters.<\/span><\/p>\n France Info subsequently removed the picture and replaced it with an image of a man threateningly brandishing a hammer outside a hospital\u2014at a different building from where the incident occurred.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Photo-tweeted-by-Interior-Minister-Castaner-on-Wednesday-night.jpg\")
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