Violent clashes have broken out in Paris between riot police and protesters angry at the police killing of a Chinese man in his own home. Three police officers were injured and 35 demonstrators arrested, the French authorities said on Tuesday.

Shaoyo Liu, 56, was allegedly shot in front of his children while he was cutting up fish. Police say the officer involved in a raid on the property on Sunday fired in self-defence after Liu wounded an officer with a “bladed weapon”.

Liu’s family says it “totally disputes” this account. His daughter told French journalists her father spoke little French and had been at the door of their home holding a pair of scissors that he had been using to descale fish for the family dinner.



“Around 8pm my little sister heard a knock at the door. She looked through the glass and she saw two men and a woman who were armed,” she said. “My father went to the door with the scissors he was using for the fish. The knocks on the door got louder and louder. I shouted, ‘calm down, make less noise,’ but they took no notice.

“They smashed the door in, the shot went off and my father ended up on the floor,” she told Le Parisien.

The girl, who was not named, said the family was ordered to stay in the room while the emergency services tried to save the father.

On Tuesday, the French authorities said they had opened an inquiry into the shooting and also into the alleged “attempted murder” of the police officer.



On Monday evening, about 150 protesters, mostly from the local Asian community, gathered outside the police station in the 19th arrondissement, chanting “murderers” and using candles to spell out the words “opposition to violence”. An angry group broke down barriers set up by police, threw missiles at officers and set fire to a vehicle.

Beijing has summoned a French diplomat for an explanation and has demanded France fully investigate the death and assure “the security and the rights” of its citizens in France.

About 100 people from the Chinese community in Paris gathered at a police station on Tuesday morning. “Justice must be done, the killer must be punished,” the protesters shouted in French.

Shaoyo Liu’s family was expected to be interviewed by police on Tuesday afternoon.



The latest incident of alleged police violence comes days after thousands of people marched in Paris in a show of anger over the alleged rape in February of a young black man by police.



Hua said Chinese authorities “hope that Chinese nationals in France can express their wishes and demands in a reasonable way”.