Clashes erupt in Paris after largely peaceful protests across France
Officials have so far managed to avoid a repeat of last weekend's rioting and looting during renewed protests over the cost of living and school conditions.
Clashes break out in Paris after mostly peaceful protests across France
There were running battles in Paris at the end of an otherwise largely peaceful rally.
French police used tear gas and water cannon to break up protesters in Paris and several other cities after a day of mostly calm demonstrations across the country.
In the capital’s Porte de Vincennes area, some people in the crowd threw objects at police, while barricades were set on fire in Marseille and boards were torn from a shop in Bordeaux.
Officials said nearly 1,000 arrests were made during the day, as an estimated 410,000 people took part in rallies across France. The unions said the figure was about 800,000, including 250,000 in Paris.
Authorities have so far avoided a repeat of last weekend’s rioting and looting, which produced some of the worst scenes of disorder in modern French history.
About 70,000 police officers had earlier been deployed nationwide, and restrictions were imposed in several cities to prevent similar disruption amid the latest protests over the cost of living and poor school conditions.
Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron decreed that only demonstrations organised by a recognised trade unions would be allowed.
In the southern port of Marseille, protesters built makeshift street barricades and set them alight late on Saturday.
Clashes between protesters and riot police in Paris erupted late on Saturday, at the end of a peaceful march from the city’s Porte d’Italie to Porte de Vincennes.
Some protesters were seen throwing projectiles and objects at officers and putting up makeshift barricades.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that "several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including around 500 individuals identified as rioters", the AFP news agency reported.
In Marseille, young people set rubbish bins on fire and used metal sheets to block streets. A law enforcement vehicle was seen driving through a burning barricade in France’s second-largest city.
Meanwhile, some protesters in dark clothing and face coverings in Bordeaux were seen removing boards from a building to construct a street barricade.
Lyon saw a crowd of about 1,000 people — demonstrating in an area banned by the local prefecture — dispersed by police earlier on Saturday, BFMTV reported.
Nuñez said late in the day that nearly 1,000 people had been arrested, adding that "this number will increase".
The minister also said two people had been "seriously injured": one in Toulouse in the south-west, and another in Clermont-Ferrand in central France.
Meanwhile, about 13,000 people joined a peaceful rally against the hard-right National Rally party in the north-central city of Orléans.
Around 550,000 people took part in demonstrations last Saturday to protest rising fuel prices and the cost of living, with anger growing after weeks of student protests, leading to more than 2,500 arrests.
The marches were initially mostly peaceful but later were marked by violence, looting and destruction, with more than 2,000 shops and other businesses across France said to have been directly affected. France’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI) said the damage was worth an estimated "at hundreds of millions euros".
According to the AFP news agency, one demonstrator’s hand was blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, while about 1,000 police officers were injured.
The French authorities later said they were forced to impose overnight curfews in Paris and other cities.