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| - A town in northern France is dismantling dozens of public benches which are still attracting users despite a nationwide ban on all non-essential excursions from the home to curb coronavirus spread. "When even fines do not dissuade certain heedless people from breaking the rules of confinement, there remains only one solution: to remove the public benches," tweeted Sebastien Lepretre, the mayor of La Madeleine, a small commune of some 21,000 residents near Lille. "They will obviously be replaced after the confinement is lifted," he said. A clearly annoyed Lepretre later told AFP this was a "life or death" decision. "It is now eight days that despite the confinement, people still go out to get Sun, have discussions, take walks," he said. "Faced with such heedlessness, we have no choice but to take measures that I would never have thought I would have to take." About 40 benches in public spaces will be removed. Those in parks and gardens, already closed under the confinement measures, are not affected. cmk/mlr/txw
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