PARIS, Oct 17 (CGTN) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday 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, Reuters reports.

On October 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.

A statement by the French presidency acknowledged that the march was repressed "brutally, violently and in blood", noting that some 12,000 Algerians were arrested, many were wounded and dozens killed.

"He admitted the facts: the crimes committed that night under the authority of Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic," the Elysee Palace statement said.

The precise number of victims of the brutal crackdown was never established, with some historians putting it at over 200 dead.