Paris firefighters probe blackface, Ku Klux Klan fancy dress party

Paris's fire brigade has opened an internal investigation into accusations that several firefighters attended a party where revellers dressed in blackface and Ku Klux Klan outfits, the force told AFP Wednesday.

Two of its number are suspected of blacking up while off-duty at the fancy dress evening on Saturday, which was organised by a parachuting club at the aerodrome of Brienne-le-Chateau in northeastern France, the fire brigade added.

Images on social media showed five attendees, dressed in the white robes and pointy hoods of the infamous US white supremacists, pretending to strangle three others, who had their faces painted black.

"Any behaviour contrary to military ethics, republican values, or respect for human dignity is strictly prohibited and will not be tolerated under any circumstances," the fire brigade said, adding that an "internal inquiry" was under way.

Yves-Marie Guillaud, president of the French Parachuting Federation, alleged that all three people in blackface worked for the Paris fire brigade.

"It hurts a lot of people," not least those from ethnic minorities, he told AFP, branding the party "vile".

Guillaud said the federation would press charges on Thursday against the eight people involved, as well as the person behind the camera.

Considered highly offensive and racist in many parts of the world, blackface originates in the minstrel shows of the early 19th century in the United States, in which white performers, with their faces painted, would mock black people.

From its founding in the late 19th century, the Ku Klux Klan terrorised, tortured and killed many African-Americans across the US south.