Thousands Turn Out For Paris Pride March

Carrying rainbow flags and a range of placards, the march headed from Pantin, on the edge of the city, into to Place de la Republique in the centre, a meeting point for many political gatherings.

Around 30,000 people turned out for the annual Pride march in Paris Saturday, police said, starting for the first time in one of the capital's working class suburbs. Carrying rainbow flags and a range of placards, the march headed from Pantin, on the edge of the city, into to Place de la Republique in the centre, a meeting point for many political gatherings. The march was deliberately started outside the fashionable centre of the capital to make it more inclusive, said Matthieu Gatipon-Bachette, spokesman for the Inter-LGBT. The Paris gay community knows these suburbs very little, said 34-year-old Romain, a Pride regular.