Clashes break out as hundreds of thousands protest in France

Clashes erupted in Paris and other French cities on Saturday after hundreds of thousands of people staged a third weekend of protests at soaring living costs.

More than 500 people were arrested as police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse rioters on the sidelines of the demonstrations, where regular protesters marched in Halloween costumes.

While Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the marches had been largely orderly, he denounced the disorder, including an incident in Paris when a police officer was struck by a Molotov cocktail.

The interior ministry said late Saturday that police had arrested 565 people across the country. Four police officers and one gendarme had been injured in Paris, three of them burned by Molotov cocktails.

After a march on the outskirts of Paris in bright sunshine, clashes broke out between police and some demonstrators as the procession reached its final destination.

Dozens of masked people dressed in black used hammers to pry up paving stones and hurl them at police, AFP journalists saw. Police responded with tear gas and several baton charges.

The Paris police prefecture said that several hundred rioters had attacked security forces with projectiles.

Nunez pointed to an "extraordinary" level of violence from some protesters, blaming far-left extremist groups for attacks on security forces.

He described the throwing of a Molotov cocktail at a riot police officer in Paris as an "attempted murder", adding that the officer had escaped with minor injuries.

"We are fully prepared for those looking for confrontation tonight," he warned.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said those responsible for the firebomb attack must be "punished with the utmost severity", in a post on X, describing images of the officer in flames as "unbearable".

A night-time curfew was to be imposed in the central Paris neighbourhoods of Republique and Chatelet-Les Halles from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am on Saturday and Sunday.

The interior ministry said that "radical elements" in cities including Bordeaux, Toulouse and Marseille had attempted to enter city centres "with the aim of carrying out vandalism and looting".

In Lyon, France's third-largest city, people threw projectiles at police, prompting officers to fire tear gas.

In the southern city of Toulouse, police used water cannon against an unauthorised protest that drew several thousand people.

Earlier Saturday, thousands of people, some wearing costumes ranging from Spider-Man to Frankenstein, marched through eastern Paris as a helicopter circled overhead.

Placards read: "No need for tear gas to make our future look bleak" and "Dressed up as an angry citizen for Halloween."

"The fact that demonstrations are being pushed outside city centres, and that so many protests are being banned, is really an attack on freedom," said one demonstrator, Alice Hien, a video game developer.

Authorities said some 320,000 people rallied across France, including 70,000 in Paris.

Youth organisations said nearly half a million people demonstrated, including 200,000 in the capital.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, took part in the Paris march and hailed the strong turnout.

The demonstrations come in a febrile political climate, with presidential elections less than six months away and Le Pen topping opinion polls.

The protest movement, bringing together Yellow Vest activists, trade unions, and high school and university students, initially focused on the rising cost of living, inequality, and deteriorating learning conditions.

Following a security clampdown and serious injuries to some protesters, the movement broadened its demands to include greater protection of civil liberties and the right to protest.

In the northern French city of Lille, 47-year-old Aurelie Herrmann danced at the protest.

"I dance because on television they only show damage and destruction, whereas you can perfectly well demonstrate in good spirits," she said.

Student protesters complained the police had not authorised a march through the centre of the French capital and vowed to stage new blockades of high schools and universities next week, including on November 5 when unions have called a demonstration.

With the eurozone's second-largest economy on the brink of recession and under pressure to rein in its debt, the government has limited scope to appease protesters through additional spending.