French police officers are protesting what they call increasingly unsafe working conditions, after an officer was critically wounded by a convict who had not returned from a prison furlough. A few thousand officers gathered Wednesday on the Place Vendome in Paris, waving union flags and sending up orange smoke from flares.

"An officer who was shot in the hand was being treated at a hospital, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sgt. John Sheahan said. He was in good condition. "Luckily -- I want to repeat, luckily -- our officer was only hit in the hand. It could have been much, much worse," he said."