French Fishermen Riot to Protest Prices : Europe: Disturbance greets premier in Brittany, prompting government promises to protect the industry from foreign competition. Sixty-one people were injured.

Thousands of fishermen battled riot police Friday during a visit by Premier Edouard Balladur, prompting government promises to protect the ailing fishing industry from foreign competition.

Authorities said 61 people--25 policemen and 36 protesters and bystanders--were treated for injuries they suffered in daylong clashes hours in Rennes. The city is the capital of Brittany, the region at the center of a violent campaign by fishermen across France.

More than 600 riot officers and paramilitary policemen repeatedly used tear gas, and occasionally clubs, to combat protesters armed with baseball bats, cudgels and paving stones ripped from the streets.

Fishermen continued to block ports into the night, all but paralyzing traffic between France and Britain.

Anxious to end the violence, Balladur pledged that his conservative government would act on its own to protect the French fishing industry if the 12-nation European Union does not move swiftly to prop up fish prices.

The trade bloc later announced that at France’s request it was setting minimum prices for Atlantic salmon and certain types of imported white fish, meeting one of the protesters’ key demands. The EU Commission said the prices will remain in effect at least until March 15.

Widespread violence by fishermen last week has resembled protests by French farmers who pressured the government to demand, and eventually win, concessions on farm subsidies in the recently completed world trade accord.

Jean Puench, the fishing minister who joined Balladur in talks with a delegation of fishermen, said the government will cut by half the fishermen’s required contributions for health care, retirement and other social programs.

On Thursday, the government promised $51 million in new aid to fishermen and ordered tighter customs checks on foreign fish to make sure they meet quality standards.

After the latest concessions, protest leaders urged their followers in Rennes to disperse but indicated they would still press for formal restrictions on fish imports.

Balladur warned against further violence, saying the concessions should be sufficient.

“One never obtains anything lasting by violence or excess,” he said.

Protesters, many masking their faces with scarves, pelted police with eggs, empty beer cans and paving stones. One protester’s hand was partly severed when he tried to pick up a tear gas grenade.

At least 13 of the injured policemen required hospitalization, including two wounded in the legs by shots from flare pistols.

The mayor of Rennes, Edmond Herve, and a Parliament member, Jean-Michel Boucheron, were beaten by protesters and escorted by riot police to City Hall, where they remained trapped for several hours. Fishermen overturned cars and smashed store windows.

The protesters arrived in Rennes by train and bus, some from distant ports. The crowd was estimated at 4,000 to 5,000, including fishermen, their wives and other supporters.

About 50 fishermen raided a Rennes supermarket, throwing imported fish to the ground. Two supermarkets were attacked in Arcachon, outside Bordeaux, where protesters blocked a highway with burning tires.

Normandy fishermen formed a blockade near the mouth of the Seine, preventing ocean traffic from reaching the port at Rouen. The port in Le Havre also was blocked, and fishermen in Mediterranean ports stopped work.