French homeless occupy luxury Paris hotel and restaurant

Around sixty homeless French people have taken a protest against poverty into a luxury hotel and restaurant in Paris.

Several people were hurt in scuffles with police during the demonstrations.

Reports say the hotel manager offered the protestors nearly two thousand dollars to leave, but they threw the banknotes on the floor, saying they would not accept charity.

The demonstrators then occupied a nearby restaurant, but left peacefully, with a promise that forty New Years Eve dinners would be delivered to a city welfare centre.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service