Almost 1,000 arrested in protests across France, minister says, as clashes erupt
Nearly one thousand people were arrested across France as a day of mass protests ended in clashes, with the interior minister warning the arrest count will only rise.
Nearly one thousand people have been arrested during protests across France, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has said, warning that the number will increase as counting continues.
An estimated four hundred ten thousand people marched across the country on Saturday, according to Interior Ministry figures, while unions organising the protests put the turnout closer to eight hundred thousand. In Paris alone, police counted around one hundred ten thousand marchers.
The day began largely peacefully, but as night fell, clashes broke out in Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Grenoble, Toulon and Nice, with tear gas fired, barricades set alight and shop windows smashed.
Around seventy thousand police officers were deployed nationwide, including an elite unit in Paris, as authorities braced for trouble at the edges of the marches. Protests also took place in Brussels, Tirana and Milan.
The unrest comes ahead of France's presidential election next year, with the government and its critics trading blame for the violence.
Reporting based on coverage from BBC News.