French winemakers on rampage

Winemakers in southern France have burned two police cars and vandalized supermarkets during protests to demand government aid.

Vintners in the Languedoc-Roussillon region have been protesting plummeting prices for their wines as well as rising fuel costs.

A regional official, Cyrille Schott, said that protesters broke windows at the courthouse in the city of Montpellier. In nearby Montagnac, protesters wielding baseball bats chased police officers from their vehicles and set the cars on fire, he added.

Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie said the protesters had tried to burn a police car carrying six officers, the newspaper Le Figaro reported on its Web site.

"That is called attempted homicide," she said, adding that the authorities would investigate.

Schott also said that protesters damaged four bank buildings.

At three regional supermarkets they trashed the wine aisles, Schott said, adding that two police officers were slightly hurt in the protests Wednesday and early Thursday.
Philippe Vergnès, president of a wine growers' syndicate in the Aude region in south-central France, said that 98 percent of 15,000 vineyards there had been "crippled financially." He urged the government to come up with a plan to help the region.