Covid-19: Record traffic around Paris as second French lockdown begins - BBC News

Traffic around Paris hit record levels just hours before a new national lockdown came into force across France.

Lockdown measures came into force at midnight on Friday (23:00 GMT) to tackle spiralling Covid infections.

Incredible traffic jam in Paris as people try to leave the city before 9 pm curfew and before confinement begins at midnight.

Anna, 24, told Le Figaro newspaper that she had left her family's Paris apartment for their second home in Bernay in northern France.

She said spending the first lockdown in Paris was "psychologically hard" - but in Bernay, "the air is cleaner, we breathe, we feel free".

Heavier-than-usual traffic and long tailbacks were also reported around the major cities of Lyon and Bordeaux in the hours before the lockdown came into force.

The traffic jams are reminiscent of an urban exodus that happened in March ahead of France's very strict first national lockdown.

"We're asking people to stay at home and Parisians to stay in Paris.

You can well understand that if 4,000 people from Paris invade and one-third of them are infected without knowing, obviously it risks spreading rapidly," wrote one commentator in the local Sud Ouest (South-West) newspaper.

During the first Covid wave, however, certain regions of France - Paris and the north-east in particular - were being badly hit when the lockdown was imposed, while other areas had comparatively few cases.

Covid-19: Record traffic around Paris as second French lockdown begins2