Lyon, bringing the total in custody to 11. Quentin Deranque, 23, suffered a fatal brain injury when he was beaten and kicked during a demonstration last week on the sidelines of a conference held by Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament for hard-left party France Unbowed (LFI).  The wave of arrests began on Wednesday, and included a parliamentary assistant to LFI politician Raphaël Arnault.Arnault said his assistant, Jacques-Elie Favrot, had halted all his work in parliament and his contract was being terminated.

Even before his arrest, Favrot's lawyer said he formally denied responsibility for the activist's death and was unable to continue his duties because of death threats. Although the radical left party of leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has sought to distance the party from Deranque's violent death, LFI has come under attack from rivals across the political spectrum, less than a month before France votes in key municipal elections.

The political climate is febrile ahead of the vote - seen as the last test of public opinion before next year's presidential elections. Within the past month Sébastien Lecornu's minority government had to survive two no-confidence motions to push through this year's budget. LFI party co-ordinator Manuel Bompard announced on Wednesday that the party's Paris HQ was briefly evacuated because of a bomb threat, and went on to accuse a large cross-section of the political and media classes of making days of false and defamatory statements. "I call for an end to this absolutely despicable exploitation of the tragedy that took place last Thursday evening in Lyon, for which France Unbowed bears absolutely no responsibility," he told reporters. "This climate should worry everybody." (BBC)