PARIS, June 7 (UPI) -- A teenager's death at the hands of skinheads in Paris prompted anti-fascist protests in the city, officials said.
Clement Meric, an 18-year-old anti-fascism activist, was beaten to death by a group of skinheads while shopping in Paris Wednesday, France 24 reported.
Meric died of his injuries Thursday, just hours before the scheduled protest of his beating.
A mix of Meric's fellow activists and classmates, left-wing sympathizers and political party members attended the protest.
The International League of Human Rights, which participated in the rally, said far right-wing attacks have been on the rise in France for several weeks.
"We are concerned about the rise of extremist right-wing positions in mainstream politics," Eric Bakerdjian, the group's president, told France 24 at the rally, a reference to the electoral success of the far-right National Front.
However, smaller right-wing radical groups would be nearly impossible to neutralize, Bakerdjian said.
"Authorities can try to dissolve them, but they just regroup as different groups," he said.
