Paramilitary identity groups marching through French streets ‘extremely serious’: Ex-president

ANKARA

Paramilitary identity groups marching through the streets of France is "extremely serious," a former French president said Monday.

Francois Hollande criticized the far-right groups' protests over the weekend following the murder of a teenager in southeastern France.

Seeing “identity groups hooded, helmeted and in paramilitary outfits parading through one of the streets of our cities is extremely serious," Hollande told broadcaster France Info.

He noted that this reaction "even before (the victim's) family expressed their pain in the face of this tragedy seemed totally indecent."

Thomas, a 16-year-old boy, was stabbed on Nov. 19 at a dance party in the town of Crepol, south of Lyon. He died on the way to the hospital.

Far-right groups took to the streets on Saturday and Sunday in the neighboring town of Romans-sur-Isere, where Thomas’s killers allegedly came from.

Tensions rose and clashes broke out during the protests, with police arresting 24 people, France Info reported.