PARIS: French police officers protested Thursday to press their claim for extra pay during this year’s Paris Olympics, underlining the threat of strikes and disruption to the Games.

Aware of the risk to the country’s image, French authorities are scrambling to agree pay deals with a host of public sector trade unions who are demanding bonuses for working during the 26th July – 11th August Olympics.

Several police unions urged officers to show “minimum activity” on a so-called “Black Thursday” of protests, with demonstrations called in front of the main Paris police station and hundreds of others nation-wide.

“For an exceptional event, exceptional measures,” the Alliance union wrote in a statement that explained how unions wanted up to 2,000 euros ($2,200) for their members in compensation for lost holidays and extra work over the summer Games.

“We only know that everyone has been asked to work,” officer Lionel Maunier, a regional Alliance union leader, told the Media at a protest in eastern Strasbourg.

“But we’ve got kids, some of us are also carers. We don’t know how we’re going to manage.”

A first protest by police on 10th January saw dozens of officers drive around Paris in open-top buses, some of them showing a flag with the Olympic rings as handcuffs.

Newspakistan.tv/APP/AFP