Sawt Falasteen - Looting, blazes and clashes in France amid nationwide protests

The widespread unrest follows weeks of student protests and deepens political uncertainty in France as it readies for elections in six months' time to replace President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron and his government were criticised by many of the demonstrators, who numbered 500,000 across the country, according to the CGT union. Authorities did not immediately give their estimate of numbers.

Police used tear gas and water cannon against masked protesters in Paris and other cities who were throwing projectiles and aiming fireworks. Several parked cars were torched in the capital, and more than 130 arrests made.

In the southern city of Saint-Etienne, a male protester had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, a police source told AFP. His maiming came after a 15-year-old lost his hand October 5 to a police stun grenade during another protest in the city of Lens.

In Lyon, protesters set ablaze a tourist office in the city centre, and smashed their way into town halls in the cities of Marseille and Lille, where they vandalised the premises before leaving.

Dozens of shops were looted, including many in Marseille, among them a Hermes boutique, an Apple store in Lille, several shops in Nice and at least one mobile phone outlet in Paris, AFP journalists saw.

A crowd of more than 300 protesters tried to move up Paris's Champs-Elysees, home to flagship luxury stores. As police firing tear gas blocked their way, they yelled "All cops are bastards".

- 'Macron, resign' -

The looting and confrontations with police were being carried out by masked youths on the sidelines of marches that were largely peaceful and which attracted people of all ages, including families with children.

Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire stressed that "the overwhelming majority of demonstrators" wanted to "march calmly", but "acts of vandalism" were tarnishing their protest.

In Paris, tens of thousands marched across the east and north of the city in one major march, some shouting "Everyone hates the police" and "Macron, resign".

One demonstrator, Jules Petrichor, 47, who had brought his son, said: "There was a good atmosphere and then suddenly they (the police) started gassing us, even though nothing was happening. Naturally that worsened things and the hot-heads got hot-headed."

Another protester who gave his first name as Louis, 19, complained that police were trigger-happy any time there was a demonstration.

"We can't protest any more, it's frightening," he said.

Demonstrators' hostility towards the police had sharpened over the course of the preceding student protests, when several teens were maimed and thousands were arrested.

France's Yellow Vest movement, which eight years ago staged street protests against Macron's government over planned fuel tax hikes, had called for the Saturday's "yellow and youth" demonstrations.

The principal grievance was the cost of living -- pushed up in part by the war in the Middle East -- that has helped send inflation soaring in Europe as elsewhere.

But there were other issues too.

High school student Kamil Alahyan, 18, said he was protesting "for so many reasons -- the elections coming up in 2027, politicians who lie, the ultra-rich who've been taking more and more wealth over the past 10 years".

"For years we've had climate, economy and equality problems but the government is not doing anything about it," said Agnes, a 50-year-old actor who did not give her second name.

Anae, a 24-year-old student who did not give her surname, said she was protesting because she did not have a "sustainable future".

"Our planet's burning. And we've got a government that doesn't give a toss," she said.

- Le Pen blames 'rioters' -

Opposition politicians vying to succeed Macron have seized upon the protests.

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who has sided with the police, said on X: "Looting, pillaging, attacking police -- rioters have once again sullied the October 17 demonstrations over the cost of living."

She claimed that the protesters' demands had been "hijacked by the far left".

Her far-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon, insisted early Saturday that "everything is passing off peacefully", while accusing television news of "flooding us with images of violence in dozens of cities".

Several protesters sought to draw parallels with the French Revolution of 1789.

"It's the Revolution -- we're taking the Bastille!" some shouted in Marseille during the forced entry of the mayor's offices.

In the western city of La Rochelle, marchers streamed behind a placard reading: "Revolution or death."

"The government is trembling and it's right to tremble because when the French people are angry, they never let up," Ryad Rani, the head of the LSU high school student representative body, told journalists in Paris.

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U.AlSharif--SF-PST