PARIS, July 23 Maurice Grimaud, who as Paris police chief played a key role in avoiding major bloodshed during France's student uprising in May 1968, has died. He was 95.

Grimaud died on July 16, according to the Paris police headquarters, and was buried at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery on Tuesday. No cause of death was given.

He won posthumous praise from both France's law-and-order president and a leftist leader of the 1968 revolt.

“With Maurice Grimaud, it's a great protagonist and a great witness of our country's contemporary history that disappears,” said President Nicolas Sarkozy, himself a former interior minister and known for his tough stance on crime.

A leader of the student uprising, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, said that although Grimaud was “on the other side of the conflict, he's someone I've greatly admired”. He added “Maintaining law and order didn't mean aggressive actions toward protesters. He understood the students' revolt.”

When students occupied the Sorbonne University and buildings around Paris's left bank in May 1968, Grimaud was praised for urging police restraint and showing willingness to start dialogue with protesters. The uprising was the defining event of post-war France.

A native of southern France, Grimaud was born on Nov 11, 1913. He studied literature and began his career at the seat of the French colonial administration in Morocco in 1936.

He then worked in Algeria and Germany and later served as a local governor and aide to then-interior minister Francois Mitterrand.

He succeeded Nazi-era collaborator Maurice Papon as head of the Paris police force. Grimaud received the prestigious Legion of Honor award and wrote two books. —AP