Tens of thousands march in France protests before police respond with tear gas and water cannons

Protests in France continued a week after widespread rioting and looting across the country occurred during demonstrations over school funding and soaring living costs.

Clashes erupted in Paris as a mass march drew to a close on Saturday, with more than 400,000 people rallying across France over school funding and soaring living costs in a fresh challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s government. The Paris march began peacefully, a week after widespread rioting and looting during protests across the country. Near its end point at Porte de Vincennes, some protesters threw projectiles while police fired volleys of tear gas and used water cannons to disperse people. The Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 410,000, while the CGT union estimated nearly 800,000. The ministry’s estimate included 110,000 in Paris, where authorities had confined the march to the city’s southeastern edge, away from the centre.

Elsewhere in France, police used tear gas in several other cities, including Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand and Strasbourg, as well as water cannons in Nice and Nantes, French media reported. In Marseille, officers fired tear gas during clashes with several dozen people near the march’s end point.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said police made nearly 1,000 arrests but added that the number is expected to increase significantly as more are counted. Nuñez said beefed-up policing, with 70,000 officers backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles and other support, helped prevent a repeat of widespread looting and damage to shops that occurred during the previous weekend.

In Paris, an Associated Press journalist saw tens of thousands of people marching from Porte d’Italie early in the afternoon, but it appeared to be a smaller crowd than a week earlier. Trade unions led the procession, followed by protesters in raincoats carrying flags and handmade placards. More than half a million people took to the streets last Saturday. Around 3,000 shops across France were damaged or looted over that weekend amid street violence not seen in years.