The paper was launched in February to howls of protest from French unions, which claim that the free newspaper, funded solely by advertising, could harm the French media sector.
Yesterday, Metro said that copies of the newspaper were taken from street distributors and dumped outside its Paris offices. The company has said it understands that union members are behind the sabotage. Last month, 50,000 copies were left outdoors in Marseilles, where they were destroyed by rain.
As it prepared to launch, French unions managed to stop Metro from being printed. However, the Swedish publisher, Metro International, got around this by having 200,000 copies printed in Luxembourg. Earlier, it had failed to secure a distribution deal with press distributor NMPP.
A second freesheet, 20 Minutes, published by Norwegian company Schibsted, is due to launch today.
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