France's interior minister has ordered a ban on the low-cost car-sharing service UberPOP after a day of nationwide protests by taxi drivers, BBC News reports.
Bernard Cazeneuve said the service was "illegal" and ordered police and prosecutors to enforce its closure.
His announcement followed a day of sometimes violent protests by French taxi drivers, who say the U.S.-based firm Uber is stealing their livelihoods.
U.S. rock singer Courtney Love Cobain was caught up in the unrest. She tweeted her frustration, saying her taxi had been ambushed as she left the airport.
The musician shared an image of the window of her car spattered with egg, and thanking two motorcyclists she said rescued her.
Key highways around Paris were blocked and tyres were burned during the day-long strike. Barriers also appeared around Marseille and Aix-en-Provence in southeast France. Some cars were overturned and others had their windows smashed with bats.
Aeroports de Paris, the operator of the French capital's Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Orly airports, warned passengers to travel by train, saying "access by road is completely blocked."
Some travellers walked along the side of the motorway to reach the airport. Taxi drivers also blocked access to Marseille and Aix train stations and protested on the main access to Marseilles-Provence airport.
San Francisco-based Uber says it has a million users in France, including 250,000 for UberPOP. Uber also operates a luxury service which is not banned.
Uber has faced similar teething problems in cities all over the world, with traditional taxi drivers protesting against being undercut by the unlicensed company.
But licensed taxi drivers have been criticised for being slow to adopt the app-based geolocation technology behind Uber's success.
