Image source, Préfète de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine et de la Gironde

A French prefect "condemns with the utmost firmness" damage in downtown Bordeaux.

Pictures show a statue in the city has graffiti at its base while a coffee shop has had its windows smashed and more graffiti sprayed across its front.

"These acts are unacceptable," says prefect Sophie Brocas, who represents the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Gironde regions.

"The perpetrators will have to answer for their actions before the courts."

Mark Lowen
Reporting from Paris

Image source, Reuters

We were on the main drag at the end of the protest march as things continued to turn ugly.

As protesters rushed past us, riot police fired volleys of tear gas, which filled our eyes and faces.

As we pulled up our hoods, another volley of gas came from the other side.

I couldn’t see - a policeman approached, hit me on the back of the leg with a baton and shouted to clear off.

We were guided down a side street and tried to take refuge inside an apartment complex, where some protesters had entered.

One shut the main door.

The police then appeared at the door and shouted to enter. As they came in, they claimed we were protecting the demonstrators. We managed to get out.

We’re fine.

But it gives you a real sense of the violent standoffs that mark the end of these bouts of unrest - and the depth of hatred there is from protesters over what many here see as heavy-handed policing.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez tells French media that nearly 1,000 people have been arrested during demonstrations across France.

French broadcaster BFM TV cites Nuñez as saying that "this number will increase".

Image source, Reuters

Outside of France, protests have also been taking place in Belgium, Albania and Italy.

In Brussels, police used teargas and pepper spray during clashes with anti-government demonstrators calling for better conditions in the education system.

In the Albanian capital Tirana, thousands attended an anti-government rally with police firing teargas to disperse them.

In Milan,Italy, there was a crackdown by police and soldiers ahead of planned protests against rising living costs. The government approved tighter security meaning things were calmer than last weekend, which saw riots and looting.

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

An estimated 410,000 people marched across France on Saturday, according to Interior Ministry figures obtained by French media.

But the CGT - one of the trade unions who organised the protests - estimates total attendance was 800,000, almost double the government's count.

In Paris, the CGT union estimated 250,000 demonstrators, while the Interior Ministry and Paris police recorded about 110,000.

Crowd size can be difficult to estimate and there's often a discrepancy in how attendance at protests is reported.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

As skies darken in France, some protesters across the country are clashing with police.

In Paris, where approximately 110,000 people marched as part of a nationwide protest, much of the day was calm.

We're now seeing images of demonstrators in Porte de Vincennes, Paris, throwing objects towards law enforcement and makeshift barricades being erected.

This follows earlier disruption in other French cities. In Bordeaux, people were seen ripping boards from a shop and forming barricades.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

In Nantes, police say 41 people have been apprehended in connection with violence during "undeclared gatherings".

In a statement on X, the Préfet des Pays de la Loire et de Loire-Atlantique says officers remain "fully mobilised" to combat violence and looting in the city in northwestern France.

Clashes on streets of Paris, after mostly peaceful demonstrationspublished at 17:44 BST

17:44 BST

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

Once again it’s at the end of the demonstrations that law and order begins to break down.

Here in Paris riot police have been baton-charging groups of masked youths who’ve been smashing the windows of a car dealership on the Cours de Vincennes.

Thick clouds of tear gas fill the air, and there’s been a fair amount of water-cannoning as well.

Earlier it had been a totally peaceful demonstration taking more than 100,000 marchers on a route well away from the city centre.

There are big police reinforcements compared to last week, and - as the Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez explained - systematic bag checks on protesters yielded results.

In other flashpoint cities from last week - like Marseille and Lyon - it’s been a similar picture: some clashes on the edge of demonstrations but on nothing like the same scale as last week.

And in Orléans - where the hard-right National Rally is holding its annual Congress - a march by 10,000 left-wing opponents passed off peacefully.

Nearly 400 "masked individuals" committed acts of vandalism and attacked police "with mortars and projectiles" on the sidelines of protests in Grenoble, the local prefecture says.

The statement says the masked protesters were from the "black bloc" group and police intervened to restore order in the city, in the south-east of France.

The demonstration had been organised by the CGT union and yellow vest movement, the prefecture adds in a post on X.

Police in Paris say they have mobilised an elite unit called BRI-PP to intervene in the capital and surrounding areas.

The unit usually focuses on organised crime and counter-terrorism operations.

It's not the only elite policing squad to have been deployed at the protests; earlier, we reported that Brav M officers were patrolling the streets of Paris on motorbikes.

About 70,000 police officers have been mobilised nationwide today.

Image source, Préfecture de Police

Jacob Phillips
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

Police in Paris say that more than 3,000 checks have been carried out and 65 people were arrested during demonstrations in the French capital.

Here is a reminder of some other disruptions:

• A group of 400 people have blocked a key road in Saint-Étienne bringing traffic to a standstill, according to the prefect for the region
• In Marseille tear gas was used on protesters who prepared to shield themselves using a barricade
• In Lyon around 10,000 people gathered at several unauthorised marches which were dispersed with tear gas, according to Franceinfo
• Several clashes took place between police and protesters in Strasbourg while a water cannon was used as several unauthorised marches took place in Nancy, according to Le Parisien

• Six people were arrested in Nantes following "vandalism and looting," according to the region's prefecture
• Meanwhile, the mayor of Nice says that 30 arrests have been made in his city

According to French broadcaster BFMTV, protests have been permitted in eight cities in France.

The yellow vests, key participants in last weekend's protests, previously said more than 700 gatherings were planned across France on Saturday.

Image source, Reuters

The protests in France come ahead of the country's presidential election, scheduled on 18 April and 2 May 2027.

Presidential candidates from the anti-immigration nationalist right (Marine Le Pen) and also the anti-capitalist left (Jean-Luc Mélenchon) are vying to make headlines.

Le Pen launched a video address via social media last Sunday blaming Mélenchon for his associates who "look to throw the country into chaos", while also urging French voters to "choose a different path" from the current centrist Macron government.

Last week, France's centrist Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu suggested that student anger was being manipulated as politics heats up ahead of next year's vote - later speaking of "insurrections" planned by "small far-left and ultra-left groups".

Mélenchon, currently running in second place in most polls ahead of centrist candidates, accused Lecornu of being "responsible for the chaos" either due to "incompetence or a worst-case strategy".

Marine Le Pen is expected to officially launch her 2027 presidential campaign at her party's rally in Orléans on Sunday.

Police in Paris say that 110,000 people marched in the capital today as part of nationwide protests.

The situation across the city was mostly "calm", they add.

A major police operation in under way in Milan, reports our team from Italy - where demonstrations were also planned.

Police and military officers are stopping and searching groups of teenagers, to prevent anyone gathering for a protest.

Image source, Getty Images

French hard-right leader Marine Le Pen thanks law enforcement officers who are out on the streets across France today.

In a post on X, she writes: "A tribute to our law enforcement forces, to our gendarmes, and to all those mobilised today everywhere in France to ensure the safety of the French people."

She is in Orléans, the location of her National Rally party's two-day conference.

Around 13,000 people have taken to the streets there to protest the party.

An image from Marseille shows masked protesters preparing a barricade.

Elsewhere in the south of France, protesters in Bordeaux have also been building barricades.

Image source, Reuters

Local authorities in Orléans say 13,000 people "peacefully" marched against the National Rally as of 14:00 local time (13:00 BST).

They were demonstrating against the hard-right party, which is holding a two-day conference in the city.

Jordan Bardella was re-elected as president during the event and Marine Le Pen is set to launch her presidential campaign.

Image source, Reuters

Tear gas is often used at major protests in Francepublished at 16:17 BST

16:17 BST

Nick Beake
Europe correspondent, in Paris

Image source, Reuters

This time last week, several major French cities were descending into chaos. Looting had begun and tear gas filled many streets. In Marseille, the police were overwhelmed, eventually running out of gas canisters, as one police union rep later told us.

Today, no such repeat. At least so far.

Two factors are in the police’s favour at the moment.

First - many marches have been banned or their routes changed or curtailed.

Second - the weather, at least in the capital. Rain is becoming heavier here and open umbrellas rather than outright mayhem is the current view.

We see there is now some tear gas being used in Marseille, Lyon and Nantes as well.

The truth is, over the past decade, it would have been highly unusual for it not to be deployed at some point during a major gathering of protesters.

Even within crowds of overwhelmingly peaceful groups, police frequently use it to disperse crowds at the end of official rallies, particularly if they’ve identified a hardcore and potentially violent element.

But it’s not yet nightfall and things can change quickly.

Protesters have been pictured running away and trying to cover their mouths after tear gas was fired in Lyon.

Here are some of the latest images from the city in the east of France.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Préfète de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine et de la Gironde/X

Police in Bordeaux, southern France, say some protesters are throwing projectiles, attacking law enforcement and setting up barricades on Place de la Bourse.

They warn people should avoid the area.

Video footage, shared by the prefecture, shows people in dark clothing and face coverings taking boards off a building and using them to form a barricade along a street.