AURILLAC: Residents and summer visitors to a picturesque town in southern France have rallied in support of a woman who faces prosecution after walking through its streets topless, in a furore over the right to bare skin. The woman, identified as Marina, has been accused of sexual exhibitionism by police. But she says that she was walking topless in the town of Aurillac in the Cantal region simply because it was hot at the height of the summer heatwave, and that men have the right to do the same.
A thousand people, including many women with bare breasts, marched through the town on Saturday to express solidarity with the woman, brandishing slogans including "Aurillac topless".
Men and women alike went bare-chested, scrawling "what difference?" in marker pens on their skin.
The incident took place on Wednesday, when the town was packed with visitors during Aurillac's annual street theatre festival that brings in thousands of people each summer.
Marina explained her choice to the press on Thursday, saying she had been "super hot" and wanted to do as "half the men" did that day, "who (had) no T-shirts on".
She was booked by police officers after refusing to cover her top at their request. The demonstration on Saturday had begun peacefully but then degenerated as some protesters burned French flags in front of the town court, with some breaking inside and starting a fire, authorities said.