Updated

French activists have clashed with riot police for the second consecutive day in western France as authorities continued evacuating a protest camp erected nearly a decade ago to block construction of an airport.

Four more police officers were injured Tuesday, suffering leg wounds, a day after one officer was hospitalized after being hit in the eye with a flare at the site in Notre-Dame-des-Landes.

The gendarme service denied claims that one of its vehicles burned down after it was hit by a Molotov cocktail.

The French government in January abandoned plans for the airport after 50 years of debate, and gave squatters until spring to clear out. The government requisitioned the land from farmers for the airport, but is now offering to return the land to those who want it.