Fresh clashes rock France as protesters march on

POLICE BATTLE “RIOTERS”

Saturday’s demonstrations drew between 410,000 and 800,000 people across the country, according to different estimates by authorities and the organising CGT union.

The main Paris march had between 110,000 and 250,000 attendees, according to those sources.

Macron’s government has ordered police to prevent protesters from reaching city centres, where shops are concentrated, and in Paris and some other cities, partial curfews were imposed in certain urban zones.

The French president had ordered non-union demonstrations be banned as “illegitimate”.

In Paris, where many shops had boarded up windows to prevent looting, and the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay museums shut for the day, the main demonstration passed off largely peacefully.

The march had been pushed to the capital’s southeast rim under a last-minute order by authorities.

Afterwards, though, clashes broke out as the crowd was dispersing, with Nunez blaming “500 rioters” at the back of the march.

AFP journalists saw police charge several times, blasting tear gas and using batons against some, mostly young, protesters.

“They were just taking people down, you know, beating protesters,” one demonstrator bleeding from a baton blow to his face, who gave his first name as David, told AFP.