Our reporters on the ground are reporting that the protests at Place de la Nation in Paris are winding down.

The protest started about 14:00 CEST (13:00 BST), moving from Place de la République, towards Place de la Nation.

As thousands marched through the streets of the capital today, some chaotic scenes broke out.

The footage below shows riot police using batons and tear gas as they clashed with protesters, some using fireworks and throwing canisters.

Image source, Reuters

The demonstrations have also become a vehicle for political sparring, with French PM Sébastien Lecornu denying claims of repression following accusations government handling of the protests was spurring chaos.

Jean-Luc Melanchon, leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party, said on X the prime minister had youth "tear-gassed and clubbed to create chaos and violence".

But Lecornu said on X that it was a lie that the government was ordering repression.

"Instructions on proportionality have been given to police officers and gendarmes. What triggers their intervention is violence," he said earlier.

"In such sensitive law enforcement operations, accidents can happen. When they do, the rule of law applies: administrative or judicial investigations, transparency, and the pursuit of accountability. And there must be empathy. But speaking of 'police violence' to suggest that there would be political instructions for repression is false.

"The situation is serious enough without needing a cowardly political class fanning the flames to incite violence and orchestrate chaos for electoral gain."

A police officer has been charged after a high school student was injured by a projectile in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, near Paris, last week.

Here's what know about the incident:

• A 14-year-old boy suffered "a double jaw fracture" after reportedly being struck in the head by a tear gas grenade on 28 September
• According to the the teenager's lawyer, the boy, Eden, underwent "extremely major surgery"
• Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced an investigation following the incident
• On Monday Eden's mother told a news conference her son "can't eat except through a straw and only liquids", French media outlet BFMTV reported

• The Pontoise prosecutor announced the officer had been charged on Tuesday

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

According to interior ministry figures, more than a quarter of a million people have demonstrated across France, including some 56,000 people who have marched through central Paris.

The organisers will be happy with this turnout in the capital, where tens of thousands of exhilarated teenagers have been marching from the Place de la Republique under banners demanding a re-ordering of government priorities: more resources for schools, less what they call repression from police.

There was a bit of stone-throwing and a bit of tear-gas, but none of the serious trouble that’s marred protests at schools in the last week.

The government is now under pressure to respond. What it’s offered so far – a website for students to express their grievances and an afternoon of internal discussion in schools on Friday – has not made much of an impression.

The protesters want specifics: a commitment to spend more money on schools. But with the piteous state of French finances, that won’t be easy.

• We reported earlier that 450,000 people were protesting across the country, according to the student union L'Union Etudiante. The BBC has been unable to verify either figures provided by the interior ministry or the union.

In Strasbourg, in north-east France, tear gas has been deployed against protesters demonstrating in the streets. Below are the latest pictures from the scene:

Police have also fired tear gas in Paris, Rennes and Marseille.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

French media are reporting that President Emmanuel Macron will meet ministers this evening at the Élysée Palace.

The meeting is expected to include PM Sébastien Lecornu, Education Minister Édouard Geffray, and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.

Image source, EPA

Bruno Boelpaep
Reporting from Lille

Earlier I spoke to Brice, 26, who I photographed during a stand-off between demonstrators and police at Place de La République in Lille.

“It gives me hope to see these young students on the streets, I feel it is important to support them. I’m no longer at school but I support them," Brice says.

"They’re only asking for equality of chances, they want to study in good conditions, no more. Being on the streets is important, it can change things."

A police officer who fired a projectile launcher that injured a high school student during protests in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône last week has been charged, multiple French outlets are reporting.

We'll bring you more details soon.

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

The students are complaining about lack of investment in education, but how does France compare to other developed countries in the money it spends on schools and universities?

According to the European Union, France’s spending on education relative to GDP is the fifth highest in the EU27, behind Sweden, Finland, Belgium and Denmark.

The absolute amount it spends per student in education is just below the EU average.

According to the OECD, France spends close to the OECD average per student – but with strong differences depending on the age group.

It spends below the average for primary and lower secondary education. But it spends 24% more than the average for upper secondary – i.e. lycées.

Image source, Getty Images

The French vocational training minister Sabrina Roubache says "we must listen to what young people are telling us", but adds they should understand they are "lucky".

"We are in France, we are a very great country," she tells BBC's Newshour. "We are lucky, we have high school free, university free, school free, the health [care is] free in France."

Roubache adds that France has a social model that is "maybe the best in the world".

She says she has been out to listen to young people today, dismissing concerns police are responding too harshly to protesters.

Roubache says there is a lot of "very high violence from young people" and cannot ask police officials to do nothing in response.

L'Union Etudiante, a student body helping organise the protests, says 450,000 protesters have taken to the streets throughout France today, which it says is "absolutely historic".

We reported earlier that an estimated 86,000 protesters were demonstrating in areas outside the Paris region, according to France's interior ministry, which has been providing separate figures.

Sadaf Maruf
Your Voice news editor

Kate Deegan, 20, has just started teaching at a secondary school and college in Arcachon - a seaside resort 40 minutes from Bordeaux.

The British student studying at Edinburgh University is living in France for her year abroad, and tells BBC Your Voice that a majority of students at the college are protesting.

"On Friday many of them were affected by tear gas outside the school, including a teacher. We were given face masks to wear as the tear gas came into the grounds of the school too," she says.

Deegan says she felt sorry for the students, some of whom were coughing and crying from the tear gas while studying in class.

She adds that her lessons have been cancelled at both institutions over safety risks today.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

The demonstration in Rennes is now over - but not before protesters lit a large fire in Place Sainte-Anne, according to the prefect of Brittany and Ille-et-Vilaine.

Earlier, pictures from AFP showed riot police officers using a water cannon and tear gas in the Place de la Republique during clashes with protesters.

In a statement, the prefect said this was used to disperse a "hostile group" that had thrown "numerous projectiles at the police officers" and tried to break through a police cordon.

A later statement said the march had continued to the Place Sainte-Anne, where some protestors lit a "large garbage fire". Firefighters intervened under police protection, the prefect added.

Mark Lowen
Reporting from Marseille

All through the day, thousands of protesters have moved around this city, stopping momentarily to chant, only then to move on as the police have changed direction.

A few moments ago, we watched as a group of masked protesters grabbed bollards and bins and tried to barricade themselves off from police.

Riot officers fired tear gas, and the protesters dispersed.

I can feel it in my throat and eyes here. Tear gas lingers in the air for some time.

It’s a sign of how volatile this situation is - and how, for the moment, the government response hasn’t contained this.

We're now receiving pictures of tear gas being deployed amid protests in Paris, with footage captured by Reuters showing one demonstrator kicking a canister as people disperse in the chaos.

Image source, Reuters

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

A sudden excitement in the crowd at the Place de la République – then the chant goes up: "Mélenchon Président!"

It’s the veteran head of the France Unbowed (LFI) party Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

He is lionised by this young left-wing audience, and as he moves about people press round for a glimpse.

This is the man accused by the government of fomenting trouble for electoral ends.

Right now he is either second or third-placed in the presidential race, depending on the polls.

He is an outspoken champion of the students’ demands, which is why they love him.

"We're here to fight for our rights," says Alissa, a student in Marseille.

She tells the BBC News Channel that they are protesting alongside teachers from their school: "We just want better conditions. They never listen to us... and if we don't fight, nobody is going to fight for us."

"Most of us aren't violent," she says, adding that "police they don't even let us [protesters] walk" in the street, which "creates a lot of tension in the country, in the city".

Her friend Sacha adds that there are leaks in school ceilings and in "general the condition in which we work is very poor, so we can't really work a lot of time".

"We will keep doing this until good measures are taken," he says.

Image source, Reuters

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu says hundreds of police officers and students have been injured during the recent protests across France.

Speaking in the French parliament this afternoon, Lecornu says 215 students have been hurt since the protests began, as have 85 school workers and 715 gendarmes and police officers.

He says it is the highest figure to affect workers in the education system in decades, condemning the "trivialisation" of violence that is "unacceptable".

"Burning down a high school does not improve the state of high school buildings. Lynching a teacher does not help replace teachers," he says, adding it is a "lie" to suggest the government had ordered "police repression" against demonstrators.

Footage from PSG celebrations falsely linked to school protestspublished at 14:36 BST

14:36 BST

By Lucy Gilder and Sarah Jalali

BBC Verify has found several examples of viral videos on X claiming to show the recent protests which are actually from months, or even years, before the current unrest.

A clip showing crowds dancing and cheering by a fire in front of the Eiffel Tower has been shared repeatedly, including in one post captioned “France has fallen” which has been viewed six million times, external.

But reverse image searches of the footage shows it was first shared on 31 May. It actually shows celebrations by Paris Saint-Germain fans after winning the Champions League final.

Another video shows a man and woman sat outside a bar while a fire burns in the middle of the street. The accompanying post - viewed 2.7 million times , external- says "this video from France is probably the most terrifying...". But the footage actually depicts protests in Bordeaux in March 2023.

One post viewed nearly 500,000 times reads, external "the black uprising continues in France" and includes a video showing what appears to be a confrontation between police and protesters at a train station in Paris.

But simply clicking a link attached to the video leads you to a post with the same footage dated to December 2017.

Pierre-Antoine Denis
Reporting from Marseille

Image source, Reuters

As the first peaceful protest drew to a close around midday, we heard rumours within the heart of the protest that it would turn to "mode sauvage" ("wild mode", or "savage mode").

In essence, the protests are now unregulated, and hordes of people are just wandering around Marseille while police try to contain the movements.

We now hear and see different groups in different parts of town.

So far it's all been peaceful here in Marseille, but the city is heavily guarded with police around different potential flash points.