Student and youth protesters faced off with police in Paris yesterday as they demonstrated against divisive labour reforms.
Television images showed police in riot gear scuffling with youth near the northern neighbourhood around Stalingrad plaza and wielding batons against protesters in a central train station.
Police fired tear gas and four demonstrators were arrested, French broadcasters said.
Demonstrators were marching against legislation put forward by Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri, which is aimed at changing the labour code and is widely seen as undermining hard-won labour rights like the 35-hour work week.
High school and university students were taking part in the protests, which have been held in cities around the country.
Students have blocked school entrances over weeks of demonstrations that were largely started by labour unions.
Two administrators at a high school in Paris were lightly-injured yesterday morning during student protests, a spokesman for the school administration union told broadcaster BFM-TV.
Disaffection with labour reforms has also fed into a nightly protest gathering in Paris’ central Place de la Republique.
Those demonstrations called Nuit Debout (roughly “Rise Up At Night”), were catalysed by the labour reform proposals but have since grown into a more disparate and broad protest against social and political inequality.
The scuffles between youth and the police took place just hours before President Francois Hollande, who surveys show remains deeply unpopular, was scheduled to address the nation in a 90-minute television broadcast.