Demonstrations have been going on in Corsica for more than a week. The reason is the attack on the Corsican separatist Yvan Colonna by a fellow prisoner, in which Colonna was seriously injured. The 61-year-old separatist, who received a life sentence for the murder of the governor of Corsica in 1998, has been in a coma since the attack. Protesters accuse French authorities of failing to transfer Colonna to a prison in Corsica against his request. In Bastia, in the north of the island, several thousand people took part in the protest, according to local media.
Colonna, who was only arrested in 2003 after being found as a shepherd in the Corsican mountains after a five-year manhunt, is still regarded by many nationalist Corsicans as a hero in the fight for independence from France.
Protesters threw Molotov cocktails at the police and set fire to a government building, local authorities said. However, firefighters managed to extinguish the fire. The regional administration in Bastia speaks of “extreme violence.” It advised residents of the city center not to leave their homes on Sunday