Beijing urges govt to protect Chinese community after police shooting
The French police have come under fire for suspected violence in recent months.
Protestors shoot fireworks at the riot squad in Paris two days after a Chinese man is killed by police, march 29, 2017
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Paris police said around 150 "members of the Asian community" gathered late Monday outside a police station in the northeast of the capital and clashes broke out.
Three officers were slightly injured in the confrontation and one police vehicle was damaged by an incendiary device.
The angry demonstrators were protesting after a police officer shot and killed the Chinese man on Sunday night.
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A police source told AFP that officers were called to his house after reports of a domestic dispute.
The source said the man attacked the officer with a knife "as soon as the door opened", injuring him.
A police colleague then opened fire, killing the Chinese man, authorities say.
Lawyer Calvin Job said the family of the dead man "totally disputes this version of events."
"He didn't injure anyone," Job said, adding that the man had been "trimming fish with a pair of scissors" when the police came to the door.
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Beijing complaint
As tempers frayed between Paris and Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry said it had filed an official complaint to France over the events in the French capital.
Beijing calls on Paris to "guarantee the safety and legal rights and interests of Chinese citizens in France and to treat the reaction of Chinese people to this incident in a rational way," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing.
"Meanwhile, we hope that our citizens... in France can express their wishes and demands in a lawful and reasonable way," the spokeswoman added.
The man's family insist that there was no domestic dispute and a neighbour had called the police after hearing shouting.
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"Police forced open the door of the apartment, pushing him back," Job said. The man did not rush towards the officers, and the police "shot without warning", he said.
A police watchdog was to interview the family on Tuesday, Job said.
Estimates put the size of the Chinese community in Paris at between 200,000 and 300,000.
Many of the first-generation Chinese nationals who live in the French capital came here in the 1980s and many work in the textile industry.
French police have come under fire for suspected violence in recent months following the highly publicised case of a black youth worker allegedly sodomised with a police baton.
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Several demonstrations have been staged since the February 2 incident involving the 22-year-old.
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