Macron: The massacre of Algerian demonstrators in 1961 is an unforgivable crime

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned the "bloody police crackdown on Algerian protesters in Paris 60 years ago", describing it as an "unforgivable crime", in the strongest admission by a French president to the massacre in which many bodies were thrown into the Seine.

On October 17, 1961, on the orders of the then Paris police chief, Maurice Papon, the police attacked a demonstration organized by 25,000 Algerian supporters of the National Liberation Front to protest against the curfew imposed on Algerians.

Macron's office said in a statement that the march was repressed "violently, brutally and bloodily," adding that about 12,000 Algerians were arrested, many injured and dozens killed.

Macron attended a memorial service on a bridge in Bison, west of Paris, where some Algerians had begun their march and where many bodies were recovered from the Seine.

"President Macron acknowledged the facts: the crimes committed that night under the authority of Maurice Papon are unforgivable for the Republic," the Elysee Palace statement said.

The French authorities denied, or for a long time concealed, that the massacre took place during the struggle against French rule in Algeria.

The mayor of Paris was the first to commemorate this incident in 2001.

The exact number of casualties has never been determined, but some historians have stated that it exceeded 200 dead.

This year's celebration comes amid diplomatic tension between Paris and Algeria.

Earlier this month, Algeria summoned its ambassador in Paris, referring to statements attributed to Macron, and which were quoted by Le Monde newspaper, in which he said that Algeria's rulers rewrote the history of its colonization on the basis of "hatred of France."

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