Story highlights
- Minister orders UberPOP vehicles seized if caught; taxi drivers vow to keep protesting
- Taxi protests prevented road access to Paris airports, snarled traffic at major rail stations
- U.S. singer Courtney Love says her car was "ambushed" and beaten with metal bats amid the protests
(CNN)Angry French taxi drivers disrupted traffic and slowed access to airports near Paris on Thursday to protest the U.S. online ride service UberPOP -- and vowed that the demonstrations will continue through Friday.
The UberPOP app was ruled illegal by the French government last year, but the company hasn't yet exhausted all legal recourse.
Didier Hogrel, president of the National Federation of Taxis, told CNN that the taxi drivers were taking action at Paris' airports, at the capital's Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon train stations, and at Porte Maillot, in the Montparnasse area.
One taxi driver was injured by a private car driver near Orly airport Thursday morning and was taken to a hospital, he said.
U.S. singer Courtney Love said she had been caught up in the protests, tweeting, "they've ambushed our car and are holding our driver hostage. they're beating the cars with metal bats. this is France?? I'm safer in Baghdad."
Love, who said her car had been attacked after leaving the airport, later tweeted that she had "got out after being held hostage for an hour" thanks to two motorcycle riders.
And she angrily called on French President Francois Hollande to act, saying, "Is it legal for your people to attack visitors?"
At Gare du Nord, when British business travelers Hardy Blechman and David Keogh arrived for their flight, their Uber car came with a baseball bat.
"Our first driver sped away as taxi drivers approached us loading his cab. Our second driver agreed to meet us in a back street near Gare du Nord and passed David a baseball bat to hold," Blechman said
"Passengers aren't the target, but I would be extremely scared if I was an Uber driver."