VIDEO: Diners in Paris enjoy meals as streets burn amid protests

Gulf Today Report

Twitter has gone into a tizzy showing people at a French restaurant calmly enjoying their food as fires raged on outside due to the anti-Macron protests over pension reforms which would increase the retirement age to 64.

Though many doubted the credibility of the video, the French publication Libération said the incident did indeed happen.

A viral video shared on Twitter by American journalist Ian Bremmer purports to show a Paris restaurant full of diners calmly carrying on while fires burn in the streets outside. The authenticity of the vision has been debated by many, but the message is clear.

There were firefighters present, which reassured the diners who went on eating like “nothing had happened".

The scene reminds us of the decadent and unpopular emperor Nero fiddling while Rome was burning.

The French really did the 'this is fine' meme,” a Twitter user said.

This was about a famous meme of a cartoon dog sitting in a burning house saying "This is fine."

There have been more than 1,500 protests in cities, with around 9 million demonstrators. Bins were set alight, there were road blockades, docker protests, barricaded university buildings, train-track invasions at stations, refinery protests and electricity blackouts by strikers. The city hall in the French city of Bordeaux was set on fire on Thursday.

Criticism from human rights groups mounted on Friday over the alleged brutality of French police in handling protests opposed to President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform.

French authorities arrested more than 450 people on Thursday in the most violent day of demonstrations since the start of the year against the bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.