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Coronavirus

02nd Nov 2020

Chaotic scenes as people flee Paris ahead of second lockdown

Melissa Carton

Emily might be the only one left in Paris.

When lockdown is announced in a country due to coronavirus, there are inevitably a number of people who try and get out of big cities and back home to family in more open, rural areas.

Some because they didn’t want to be locked down away from family, others so they could have more space or be closer to nature.

Parisian residents seemed to have had the same idea recently, as many fled the city to avoid another lockdown.

And it looked like total mayhem.

According to BBC News, jams stretched to a cumulative  700 kilometres in the Ile-de-France region last week just before the country’s second lockdown.

A state of emergency was called in France earlier in October with Paris and eight other cities hit with strict curfews.

Many Paris residents have taken to social media over the last couple of weeks sharing videos of people fleeing from police after being caught outside after 9pm.

Many Parisians also stated that their mental health was badly effected by the first lockdown, and that they would rather be in another part of France than spend a second lockdown in the capital city.