Paris witnesses 700-km-long traffic jam as second COVID-19 lockdown begins in France

France has gone back into a nationwide lockdown in a bid to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that is again threatening to spiral out of control. Just ahead of slipping back into lockdown, the city of Paris witnessed traffic jams for hundreds of kilometres.

During the lockdown, Parisians, along with the rest of this nation of 67 million, were confined to their homes from Friday, for the second time in seven months. But on Thursday evening, in a jaw-dropping situation, the traffic jams stretched to some 700 kilometres (435 miles) in the region around Paris, as per news agency AP.

Friday marked the start of a nationwide four-week government-imposed lockdown in France to fight a resurgent coronavirus threatening to swamp the country’s health system.