Paris police have banned people from drinking alcohol along the Saint-Martin canal and the Seine river after unmasked crowds gathered to celebrate the city’s easing lockdown, saying that they “deplored” issuing the order. “Barely a few hours after the lifting of the lockdown, dozens of people gathered,” the press release reads, “without respecting social distances and the health recommendations that have even so been hammered home for the past few weeks.” France began to lift its lockdown in different areas of the country, however Paris—designated as a “red zone”—remains under tighter restrictions. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner criticized the “irresponsible behavior” of the crowds, saying that the “success of the déconfinement depends on everyone’s prudence and civic-mindedness.”
