Almost 1,000 people have been arrested during protests across France, the interior minister says, as clashes erupt after a day of mostly peaceful demonstrations
In Porte de Vincennes, Paris, protesters threw objects towards the police, while barricades were set alight in Marseille and people ripped boards from a shop in Bordeaux
Police fired tear gas in cities including Lyon and Nantes as hundreds of thousands took to the streets across France - 110,000 protesters marched in Paris alone, police say
Tear gas filled my eyes as protest turned ugly, writes our reporter in Paris, showing how violent standoffs mark the end of these bouts of unrest
Today's marches follow last weekend's riots and looting that saw more than 2,700 arrested - why are people protesting?
As we've been reporting, away from France, protests have also been taking place across other parts of Europe today.
Italian media report that police arrested nine people and detained 371 people, including 110 minors, following demonstrations in Italy.
The footage below shows police firing a water cannon at protesters in central Rome.
Nearly 1,000 people have been arrested during demonstrations across France today, with that number expected to rise, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.
The photos below show the scenes that took place in Paris and Marseille this evening.
Image source, ReutersGendarmes stand in position during clashes in Paris
Image source, ReutersMasked protesters face off with French police in Paris
Image source, ReutersPolice stand guard during protests in Marseille
Image source, ReutersRiot police officers were covered in what appears to be paint during demonstrations in Paris
Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesAround 11,500 people gathered in Rennes, France, on Saturday despite the demonstration being banned, the prefecture covering the area says.
In a statement it says "several thousand people" were hostile towards police officers as they marched towards the city centre, despite organisers saying they would disperse the crowd.
It says security forces confronted "particularly violent individuals", including some who fired projectiles.
A water cannon and two armoured vehicles were deployed to push back protesters and dismantle barricades created in several streets, the statement says.
The prefecture adds that 52 arrests had been made.
There has been a "tense end to the demonstration" in Toulon in southern France following several clashes between protesters and police officers, the local prefect has said.
The prefect says smoke bombs and projectiles were thrown while flares were fired from boats.
Around 150 people then gathered in the city and set fire to garbage bins before dispersing, the prefecture adds.
An order banning people from gathering was issued.
In the last few hours 55 people have been arrested including 33 minors. Around 11 people are in police custody.
Two officers and two protesters were injured during the clashes.
Image source, Getty ImagesA woman tries to protect herself from tear gas next to police officers during a protest in Nice
In Nice, where demonstrations had been banned today, more than 2,000 people gathered to protest, police say.
Préfet des Alpes-Maritimes says during the dispersal of the protest far-right and far-left protesters clashed.
They add 63 people were arrested, two police officers were injured and three protesters sustained minor injuries.
Image source, Préfète de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine et de la GirondeA French prefect "condemns with the utmost firmness" damage in downtown Bordeaux.
Pictures show a statue in the city has graffiti at its base while a coffee shop has had its windows smashed and more graffiti sprayed across its front.
"These acts are unacceptable," says prefect Sophie Brocas, who represents the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Gironde regions.
"The perpetrators will have to answer for their actions before the courts."
Mark Lowen
Reporting from Paris
Image source, ReutersWe were on the main drag at the end of the protest march as things continued to turn ugly.
As protesters rushed past us, riot police fired volleys of tear gas, which filled our eyes and faces.
As we pulled up our hoods, another volley of gas came from the other side.
I couldn’t see - a policeman approached, hit me on the back of the leg with a baton and shouted to clear off.
We were guided down a side street and tried to take refuge inside an apartment complex, where some protesters had entered.
One shut the main door.
The police then appeared at the door and shouted to enter. As they came in, they claimed we were protecting the demonstrators. We managed to get out.
We’re fine.
But it gives you a real sense of the violent standoffs that mark the end of these bouts of unrest - and the depth of hatred there is from protesters over what many here see as heavy-handed policing.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez tells French media that nearly 1,000 people have been arrested during demonstrations across France.
French broadcaster BFM TV cites Nuñez as saying that "this number will increase".
Image source, ReutersProtesters stand in front of smoke on Skanderbeg Square during an anti-government protest in the Albanian capital Tirana,
Outside of France, protests have also been taking place in Belgium, Albania and Italy.
In Brussels, police used teargas and pepper spray during clashes with anti-government demonstrators calling for better conditions in the education system.
In the Albanian capital Tirana, thousands attended an anti-government rally with police firing teargas to disperse them.
In Milan,Italy, there was a crackdown by police and soldiers ahead of planned protests against rising living costs. The government approved tighter security meaning things were calmer than last weekend, which saw riots and looting.
Image source, EPA/ShutterstockMembers of an antifascist group take part in a demonstration in Brussels in Belgium
An estimated 410,000 people marched across France on Saturday, according to Interior Ministry figures obtained by French media.
But the CGT - one of the trade unions who organised the protests - estimates total attendance was 800,000, almost double the government's count.
In Paris, the CGT union estimated 250,000 demonstrators, while the Interior Ministry and Paris police recorded about 110,000.
Crowd size can be difficult to estimate and there's often a discrepancy in how attendance at protests is reported.
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Getty ImagesIn Porte de Vincennes, Paris, protesters can be seen throw objects towards the police
As skies darken in France, some protesters across the country are clashing with police.
In Paris, where approximately 110,000 people marched as part of a nationwide protest, much of the day was calm.
We're now seeing images of demonstrators in Porte de Vincennes, Paris, throwing objects towards law enforcement and makeshift barricades being erected.
This follows earlier disruption in other French cities. In Bordeaux, people were seen ripping boards from a shop and forming barricades.
Image source, Getty ImagesMakeshift barriers have been erected in Paris
Image source, Getty ImagesIn Marseille, a law enforcement vehicle has driven through a burning barricade
Image source, Getty ImagesFrench Police officers in riot gear as flames rise on the Cours Saint-Andre in Nantes
In Nantes, police say 41 people have been apprehended in connection with violence during "undeclared gatherings".
In a statement on X, the Préfet des Pays de la Loire et de Loire-Atlantique says officers remain "fully mobilised" to combat violence and looting in the city in northwestern France.
Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent
Once again it’s at the end of the demonstrations that law and order begins to break down.
Here in Paris riot police have been baton-charging groups of masked youths who’ve been smashing the windows of a car dealership on the Cours de Vincennes.
Thick clouds of tear gas fill the air, and there’s been a fair amount of water-cannoning as well.
Earlier it had been a totally peaceful demonstration taking more than 100,000 marchers on a route well away from the city centre.
There are big police reinforcements compared to last week, and - as the Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez explained - systematic bag checks on protesters yielded results.
In other flashpoint cities from last week - like Marseille and Lyon - it’s been a similar picture: some clashes on the edge of demonstrations but on nothing like the same scale as last week.
And in Orléans - where the hard-right National Rally is holding its annual Congress - a march by 10,000 left-wing opponents passed off peacefully.
Nearly 400 "masked individuals" committed acts of vandalism and attacked police "with mortars and projectiles" on the sidelines of protests in Grenoble, the local prefecture says.
The statement says the masked protesters were from the "black bloc" group and police intervened to restore order in the city, in the south-east of France.
The demonstration had been organised by the CGT union and yellow vest movement, the prefecture adds in a post on X.
Police in Paris say they have mobilised an elite unit called BRI-PP to intervene in the capital and surrounding areas.
The unit usually focuses on organised crime and counter-terrorism operations.
It's not the only elite policing squad to have been deployed at the protests; earlier, we reported that Brav M officers were patrolling the streets of Paris on motorbikes.
About 70,000 police officers have been mobilised nationwide today.
Image source, Préfecture de Police
Jacob Phillips
Live reporter
Image source, ReutersProtesters take cover as a water canon is used at a demonstration in Paris
Police in Paris say that more than 3,000 checks have been carried out and 65 people were arrested during demonstrations in the French capital.
Here is a reminder of some other disruptions:
According to French broadcaster BFMTV, protests have been permitted in eight cities in France.
The yellow vests, key participants in last weekend's protests, previously said more than 700 gatherings were planned across France on Saturday.
Image source, ReutersMarine Le Pen has urged voters to "choose a different path" following the unrest
The protests in France come ahead of the country's presidential election, scheduled on 18 April and 2 May 2027.
Presidential candidates from the anti-immigration nationalist right (Marine Le Pen) and also the anti-capitalist left (Jean-Luc Mélenchon) are vying to make headlines.
Le Pen launched a video address via social media last Sunday blaming Mélenchon for his associates who "look to throw the country into chaos", while also urging French voters to "choose a different path" from the current centrist Macron government.
Last week, France's centrist Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu suggested that student anger was being manipulated as politics heats up ahead of next year's vote - later speaking of "insurrections" planned by "small far-left and ultra-left groups".
Mélenchon, currently running in second place in most polls ahead of centrist candidates, accused Lecornu of being "responsible for the chaos" either due to "incompetence or a worst-case strategy".
Marine Le Pen is expected to officially launch her 2027 presidential campaign at her party's rally in Orléans on Sunday.
Police in Paris say that 110,000 people marched in the capital today as part of nationwide protests.
The situation across the city was mostly "calm", they add.
A major police operation in under way in Milan, reports our team from Italy - where demonstrations were also planned.
Police and military officers are stopping and searching groups of teenagers, to prevent anyone gathering for a protest.
Image source, Getty ImagesFrench hard-right leader Marine Le Pen thanks law enforcement officers who are out on the streets across France today.
In a post on X, she writes: "A tribute to our law enforcement forces, to our gendarmes, and to all those mobilised today everywhere in France to ensure the safety of the French people."
She is in Orléans, the location of her National Rally party's two-day conference.
Around 13,000 people have taken to the streets there to protest the party.
