Police and protesters clashed amid mass rallies across France on Saturday, over high prices and social inequalities and the state of the education system.

France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said some 1,200 people had been arrested across the country and that 150 police officers had been injured.

"It's a miracle the toll wasn't higher," Lecornu said while visiting officers deployed in Paris on Saturday evening.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 110,000 people took part in the demonstrations in Paris alone, while 110 marches had taken place across the country.

Hundreds of thousands turn out across France

The Interior Ministry said some 550,000 people turned out for the nationwide demonstrations.

The ministry said the arrests were made following violent incidents in Paris, Marseilles, Rennes, Toulouse, Angers and other cities across the country.

"Such actions include attempted looting, confrontations with law enforcement, the setting of fires to street furniture and the targeting of seats of power and media outlets," the ministry said, blaming the unrest on what it described ​as the "hard-left."

In Paris and Marseille, police fired tear gas at protesters as violent clashes took place.

AFP reported that dozens of shops were looted in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux and Lille.

The windows of the offices of French broadcasters CNews and Europe 1 in western Paris were also broken by protesters, and AFP journalists reported seeing several parked cars torched.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the violence in a post on X and warned: "Those who have broken, attacked the prefectures as well as businesses, looted even our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished." 

Buildings set alight amid unrest

In Lyon, situated in central France, the city's tourism office was set alight with flames and black smoke seen billowing from the building.

In the city of Limoges, the town hall was set alight as unrest broke out. The blaze spread from a wing of the building and eventually reached the roof, where it continued burning as crowds stood watching.

The historic building was largely destroyed by the blaze, despite attempts by firefighters to douse the flames.

Meanwhile, in the northern city of Lille, protesters smashed their way into the city hall and vandalized the premises before leaving, according to an AFP photographer.

Riot police within minutes confirmed that all the protesters had left. 

The protests come on the heels of an initial wave of demonstrations that began last month over the situation at schools in the country, with pupils complaining about teacher absences and run-down facilities.

Police ban demos in central Paris

In the French capital, police had banned rallies around the Elysee presidential palace, the prime minister's office and the Champs-Elysees avenue, along with other key locations.

A march through the center of the city was also banned.

Reports began emerging late on Saturday morning of riot police clashing with protesters in the Saint-Denis area on the outskirts of the capital, as well as near the Gare du Nord train station, among other areas.

Scenes of unrest 'don't paint full picture'

In Paris, DW correspondent Jack Parrock said unrest was playing out in small pockets of the city.

"The videos circulating on social media of the violence in France don’t paint the full picture," Parrock said.

"The significant percentage of the people we met out on the streets of Paris were teachers, nurses, students, and workers, who want no part in the unrest, but do also seem to understand why the outbreaks are happening," Parrock explained.

"Amongst those people, we did still witness a collective rage against a government they don’t feel is listening to them," said Parrock.

On the matter of how police were responding, Parrock said they had seen police "seemingly try to show some restraint — clearly intending to de-escalate some of the recent tension."

Who took part in the protests?

Students have been joined by trade unionists and remnants of the Yellow Vests ("Gilets jaunes") movement, which staged mass weekly protests from November 2018 to June 2020, initially against rising fuel prices. They later morphed into protests against the high cost of living and economic inequality in general.

The student protests over the past weeks have been backed by Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the hard-left France Unbowed ("La France insoumise", or LFI), who marched in one demonstration on Tuesday.

The government has blamed the LFI for pouring fuel on the fire of widespread public discontent, an allegation the party has denied.

Edited by: Karl Sexton, Jenipher Camino, Sean Sinico

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