PARIS, (Reuters) - Emmanuel Macron yesterday denounced as an “unforgivable crime” a bloody crackdown on Algerian protesters by police in Paris 60 years ago, the strongest recognition by a French president of a massacre in which many bodies were thrown into the River Seine.

On Oct. 17, 1961, under the orders of then Paris police chief Maurice Papon, police attacked a demonstration by 25,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerians protesting against a curfew imposed on Algerians.

The march was repressed “brutally, violently and in blood”, Macron’s office said in a statement, adding that some 12,000 Algerians were arrested, many were wounded and dozens killed.

Macron attended a ceremony commemorating the anniversary at the bridge at Bezons, west of Paris, from where some Algerians had started their march and where many bodies were recovered from the Seine.