French police use tear gas as protests over cost of living turn violent

PARIS — Police used tear gas and water cannons in Paris on Saturday as nationwide protests over rising living costs and education conditions descended into violence, with hundreds of arrests reported.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez’s office reported "a growing number of violent incidents" across the country, including assaults on officers, looting and damage to public buildings.

Associated Press reporters saw thick black smoke rising from cars, bicycles and other vehicles, and trash bins on fire in Paris. A kiosk was also burning, while several shops were looted.

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Police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back people wearing hoods and masks and throwing fireworks, paving stones and other objects at officers in the Place de la République, northeast of the city centre.

Nuñez said about 400 people had been arrested, a preliminary figure. He said 550,000 people took part in 110 demonstrations across the country, including one in Paris that counted 110,000 demonstrators.

He alleged that "on the sidelines" of those demonstrations, several hundred people attacked law enforcement officers and businesses and tried to damage public buildings, and were instigated by the "ultra left."

At least 60 law enforcement officers were injured, Nuñez said.

Protesters across France responded to calls on social media to revive the "yellow vest" movement, which emerged in 2018 against social injustice. Student groups protesting since mid-September through school blockades urged supporters to join them.

The CGT, one of France’s major labour unions, also backed the protests, calling for "higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people’s needs."

It said that over 500,000 protesters joined the rallies Saturday.

In the southern port city of Marseille, some shops and a municipal police station were damaged, while protesters briefly forced their way into the lobby of City Hall. "This is unacceptable," Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan told BFM TV, describing the damage as "limited."

In Lyon, France’s third-largest city where about 20,000 protesters joined a march, a fire broke out inside a tourist office.

Nuñez’s office also reported violence by masked groups in Rennes, Toulouse, Montpellier and Grenoble, among other cities.

President Emmanuel Macron appealed for calm on Friday. "There is a constitutional right to protest and to express oneself," he said in Brussels. "But this right comes with the need to respect. Respect for people, respect for property, and therefore a commitment not to insult or destroy."

Macron denounced as "unacceptable" the potential presence of people "solely to cause damage and create unrest."

Sonia Mabrouk, 40, said she came from a suburb west of Paris with her daughter, a high school student, to protest "everything that’s going wrong," particularly the neglect of public services.

Mabrouk, who took part in the yellow vest protests, criticized "policies that favor the rich and always hit the poorest people in their wallets."

"There’s a general sense of frustration and anger," she said.

That was echoed by another Paris protester, 19-year-old Lola, who told Reuters that people took to the streets over a long list of issues.

"We are fighting because the cost of living is too harsh, because the price of fuel is too high, because high school pupils are being violently attacked and hurt all over the country just for trying to protest and ask for more teachers and decent learning conditions," she said.

In recent weeks, France has seen thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries and schools set on fire as the new school year descended into nationwide student protests.

Among protesters, particularly gruesome wounds suffered by some teenagers have been blamed on police riot-control weapons. Nuñez suspended the use of a type of police stun grenade against the young demonstrators after a 15-year-old lost a hand.

The mayor of Saint-Étienne, Régis Juanico, said in a Facebook post that "a young man had his hand blown off by a grenade" on Saturday.

Far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who backed the high school students movement, also took part in the Paris protest Saturday.

Police banned some other proposed gatherings in central Paris. Many metro stations were closed Saturday at police request, including those around the Champs-Elysées and near the presidential palace, parliament and government offices.

With files from CityNews, CBC News and Global News