French police fire tear gas in Lyon as cost-of-living protests resume

French police fired tear gas in Lyon on Saturday as fresh nationwide demonstrations over the high cost of living got under way, with authorities deploying 70,000 security personnel to prevent a repeat of last weekend's rioting.

In Lyon, in the southeast, officers used tear gas to break up about 150 protesters who briefly tried to block a road near the city centre, where demonstrations had been banned, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

The Interior Ministry said the threat of violence was "high". Interior Minister Laurent Nunez warned on Friday: "We will not tolerate any unrest." He said calls for violence and looting had been circulating on social media.

Shops boarded up, museums shut

In Paris, streets were unusually quiet. Many shop windows were covered with wooden boards, and some large retailers told customers they would stay closed for the day. Near Bastille, a clothing store cleared its shelves and a restaurant put up boards with a sign insisting it was "still open".

The Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay museums were closed.

Paris police moved a union-organised march at short notice from Bastille to Porte d'Italie on the southern edge of the capital. Unions said they would reluctantly comply, but the Yellow Vest movement, which staged disruptive protests against President Emmanuel Macron eight years ago, said it would not.

Authorities in Marseille had banned all protests but said on Friday that a union-led demonstration would be allowed on an "exceptional basis".

Anger over costs and classrooms

The groups behind Saturday's marches accuse Macron and his government of ignoring public anger over rising costs and over conditions in classrooms for students. Inflation in France, as in other countries, has been pushed up by the Middle East war that US President Donald Trump and Israel started in February, according to the reports.

Last weekend, rioters on the edges of the demonstrations clashed with police, vandalised public buildings and looted hundreds of stores. About 2,700 people were arrested, and the retail sector said damage and stolen stock ran into hundreds of millions of euros.

Officials said courts have already sent 217 people to prison over Saturday's events, half of them first-time offenders. Macron blamed the worst of the violence on "ultra-left" groups he said "want to bring down the republic".

The crackdown has drawn criticism. Amnesty International called it "a slide toward authoritarian practice", saying the measures were "jeopardising the right to demonstrate peacefully". Eva Cosse, senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch, said police must both allow peaceful protests and protect the public from violent disorder.

Tensions are also running high ahead of a presidential election in six months. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally is holding a congress in Orleans this weekend, and thousands marched against her and against Macron, chanting "Macron resign. Le Pen in prison." Surveys put Le Pen in the best position to win.

Protests over inflation and education have also taken place in Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. Italy has sent 500 troops to try to quell street violence in Milan.