PARIS: Demonstrators torched cars and pelted police with stones and bottles and police fired tear gas and water cannon in Paris on Saturday as rallies to mark the first anniversary of the anti-government “yellow vest” demonstrations erupted into violence.
A total of 28,000 people demonstrated across France on Saturday including 4,700 in Paris, the interior ministry said.
This was more than in recent weeks but 10 times less the record 282,000 estimated for the whole country on Nov. 17, 2018, the first day of the protests.
In Paris, police took 124 people in for questioning and 78 people were in custody , the authorities said.
Demonstrators, many clad in black and hiding their faces, vandalized an HSBC bank branch at the Place d’Italie. They set trash bins on fire, hurled cobblestones and bottles at riot police, and erected barricades.
Several cars were set ablaze. Police responded with tear gas and blasts from water cannon.
Clashes also broke out between demonstrators and police near the Porte de Champerret, close to the Arc de Triomphe, as protesters prepared to march across town toward Gare d’Austerlitz.
Police also intervened to prevent a few hundred demonstrators from occupying the Paris ring road.
Paris police prefect Didier Lallement canceled permission for a scheduled demonstration in view of the violence.
There were still a few scattered clashes in Les Halles area in central Paris by early evening.
In other cities, yellow vest demonstrations were largely peaceful, with 1,000 people marching in Marseille in southern France.
The yellow vest protests, named for the high-visibility jackets worn by demonstrators, erupted in November 2018 over fuel price hikes and the high cost of living. The demonstrations spiraled into a broader movement against President Emmanuel Macron and his economic reforms.
The protests have lost strength in recent months but leaders called for people to turn out on Saturday to mark the anniversary.
