Anti-Uber protest by French taxi drivers wreaks havoc

French taxi drivers blocked entrances to airports and disrupted traffic on Thursday in a nationwide protest against ride-hailing service Uber.

The protesters blocked access to Paris's Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, as well as key train stations, forcing many frustrated travellers to find alternative means of transportation. 

American singer Courtney Love, who was among some of the travellers caught in the protest, took to Twitter to share her frustration.

Video and photos showing burned tires and overturned cars have also surfaced online. 

Police said 70 cars were damaged and ten people were arrested in total. Seven police officials were also injured in the protest.

UberPop, Uber's lowest-cost service, has provoked a lot of anger among French taxi drivers and private chauffeurs who say the service is ruining their livelihoods.

Rolled out in Paris four years ago, UberPop has been contesting legal battles ever since. 

Despite an October 2014 law that prohibited UberPop, Uber drivers have continued to provide services to Parisians. Uber is arguing in the French court that the law is counter to the company's right to freedom to do business. 

France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve ordered Paris police on Thursday to ban all UberPop activities "given the serious public order disturbances and development of this illegal activity."

Cazeneuve said he would meet with UberPop officials to tell them that "the government will never accept the law of the jungle." 

This isn't the first time French taxi drivers have protested against Uber. In 2014, five major taxi unions organized a nationwide protest against the company.

Uber has faced many problems around the world in recent years.

In the city of Guangzhou in China, police raided Uber offices and seized thousands of iPhones and other equipment.

Last week in Spain, a Barcelona judge requested the help of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg to help rule whether Uber should be regulated under transportation rules or as an information services company. 

In March, protests by trade unions and civil society groups prompted the UN women's agency group to back out of a partnership with Uber, which had pledged to create jobs for a million female drivers by 2020. 

The San Francisco-based company is reportedly worth over $40 million and has backers such as Goldman Sachs and Google. The company says it has 1 million users in France.