Police fire teargas as May Day violence flares up in France

French police fired teargas and clashed with demonstrators in Paris and other cities yesterday after trade unions transformed their traditional May Day marches into anti-government demonstrations against the rise in the retirement age.

- Angelique Chrisafis

At least 108 police were wounded and 291 people detained across the country as violence erupted in several cities on the sidelines of the main marches, the interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, told reporters.

In Paris, the trade union-led demonstration began peacefully with many families joining in, holding banners calling for social justice and demanding Emmanuel Macron resign or withdraw his law to raise the minimum eligible pension age from 62 to 64.

But on the edges of the march as it passed through the city's 11th arrondissement, police fired teargas and clashed with groups of young men dressed in black. Projectiles, bins and petrol bombs were thrown at police. Some Paris bus stops and shop fronts were smashed and painted with anti-police slogans. As the march reached its end point at Place de la Nation, police fired teargas and pushed back crowds.

There was also unrest in Lyon, where several cars were set alight and the windows of some businesses were smashed. In Nantes, in western France, bins were piled up and set alight in front of a local administration building, shop windows were smashed and police fired teargas after protestors threw projectiles. One demonstrator was treated by paramedics for an injury to his hand.