Video shows Paris police spraying tear gas on homeless people's belongings

By Nur Asena Erturk

ANKARA (AA) – French police officers were caught spraying tear gas on the personal belongings of homeless people, asylum seekers in particular, in Paris.

A video shared Friday on Twitter by the humanitarian association Utopia 56 featured two police officers in the street near the Stalingrad metro station in the French capital, on Thursday evening.

One of them was spraying tear gas on homeless people's – asylum seekers in particular – personal belongings, including blankets and other objects, the association said.

"Though these actions are regular, it was hard to have the evidence," Utopia 56 also wrote in the caption.

Nikolai Posner, coordinator of Utopia 56 in Paris, told broadcaster France Info that two days ago, the volunteers of the association gave blankets and emergency materials to those people in need.

He further said police officer sprayed gas on the blankets, mattresses, and personal belongings of two asylum seekers who live on the streets.

According to Posner, this rare footage confirms the statements they received for years from people "who had their stuff gassed, or who are gassed themselves while sleeping on the floor, or gassed in their tents."

An administrative investigation was launched, France Info said.