On Saturday in Paris, some vehicles were set on fire and a number of shops were broken into as police responded with tear gas and water cannon to demonstrators who had gathered as part of nationwide marches over the cost of living and in support of grievances raised by secondary school students.

Figures released by Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez's office pointed to an increase in disorder nationwide, with attacks on law enforcement personnel, looting, and damage to public buildings all recorded among the incidents. Nationwide, officers carried out a minimum of 272 detentions, with the capital among the locations affected.

Demonstrations tied to online calls for action drew people into the streets nationwide, reviving a protest movement that first took hold in 2018 around grievances over economic and social inequality. Protests broke out over the rising cost of petrol, energy, and food, with crowds voicing opposition to government policy across those areas.

Officers deployed tear gas and water cannon against a crowd gathered at Place de la République, northeast of central Paris, where some individuals in face coverings were directing fireworks, paving stones, and other projectiles toward security personnel. Thick plumes rose from cars, bicycles, and other vehicles that had caught fire, with waste bins also burning nearby.

A retail kiosk in the vicinity caught fire, while merchandise was taken from a number of nearby shops. A number of people sustained injuries during the confrontations.

Nuñez's office reported that law enforcement moved to stop scattered clusters of demonstrators from reaching government buildings. On Saturday, transit access was curtailed across a number of stations at the request of authorities, with closures covering stops near the Champs-Elysées as well as those serving the vicinity of the presidential palace, parliament, and government offices.

Thousands taking part in the demonstration made their way on foot toward the northwestern outskirts of Paris. Flags were raised across the gathering as participants joined in the national anthem, with trumpets and violins audible among the crowd.

Flames took hold inside a tourism office in Lyon, where roughly 20,000 people had gathered as part of the demonstration — a city that ranks third in France by population. Retail outlets and a local police post sustained damage in the Mediterranean port of Marseille, where a crowd also pushed through the entrance of City Hall before being turned back.

Incidents involving masked individuals were logged by Nuñez's office across several cities, including Rennes, Toulouse, Montpellier, and Grenoble.

Organising through campus blockades that began around mid-September, the student groups put out a call for additional people to take part alongside them. The CGT — one of France's nationally prominent labour organisations — joined the protests, pressing authorities to lift wages and pensions, ease the cost of living, and protect publicly funded services, with the union putting attendance across all venues at upwards of 500,000 on Saturday.

Student demonstrations that spread across the country over the opening weeks of the academic term — marked by thousands of detentions, hundreds of people treated for injuries, and a number of school buildings set alight — have fed into the ongoing presidential election debate and drawn attention from abroad.

Presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who had voiced support for the student movement in secondary schools, attended the Paris demonstration on Saturday. Injuries described as especially grave — including those sustained by a number of teenagers — were attributed by protesters to crowd-control weapons deployed by police. After a 15-year-old lost a hand during protests, Nuñez halted deployment of that category of police stun grenade against young demonstrators.