In France, ninth day of demonstrations against the pension reform which will raise the minimum age for leaving work from 62 to 64.
Paris was crossed by a giant procession, clashes and arrests also took place in other cities.
The Parisian demonstration started peacefully from the Bastille, but on the way up to the Opéra Garnier, a hundred black blocs attacked a fast food restaurant, smashed the windows of a bank and a small supermarket, destroying benches and shelters.
It is now guerrilla warfare in Paris, where groups of young people in balaclavas invaded the Bastille district and the streets of the Marais tonight, after the official end of the demonstration, setting fire to bins and detonating large firecrackers.
In a general stampede, policemen and gendarmes rushed into the area, charging at the young people - already fleeing - and throwing many tear gas canisters right on the square.
Sirens and a widespread smell of tear gas are scaring away the people who were sitting at the tables in the bars and passers-by.
ANSA agency
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The police forces tried to intervene but were targeted by objects, stones and incendiary bottles.
Firefighters intervened several times to put out the flames of burning dumpsters.
123 policemen and gendarmes were injured.
The number of those arrested has now risen to 80.
Pension reform in France, tension on the Grands Boulevards in Paris
As usual, the numbers of participants in the demonstrations are very different between the version provided by the unions and that of the police.
But either way, today those records are equaled or broken.
If for the CGT there were 800,000 in Paris, the police accounted for 119,000, in both cases the highest since the protest began two months ago.
As for the number of demonstrators in France, 3.6 million (equal record) for the CGT, one million and 89,000 for the police.
Pension reform in France, the railway tracks of the Gare de Lyon are occupied in Paris
During the black bloc incidents, a policeman was hit on the head by a "pavé" detached from the road surface and was rushed to hospital.
Accidents also occurred in Le Havre, in the north, where 8 people were arrested for damaging street furniture and setting fire to bins and public material.
Eight also detained in Rouen, Normandy, where 11 other people were treated for injuries sustained during the clashes.
Among these, a woman complaining of the amputation of her thumb.
France: pension reform, the Parisian procession arrives at the Place de la Republique
In the aftermath of the president's TV interview which aroused criticism of the poison from trade unions and oppositions, the French are going ahead with the ninth day of strikes and national mobilizations against Emmanuel Macron's pension reform.
Interviewed live on TF1 and France 2 after weeks of social tensions, Macron went straight on his way, declaring that the reform - the most important of his five-year term at the Elysée - will be applied "by the end of the year" and said he was ready to assume all "the unpopularity necessary, in the name of the best interests of the nation".
"This reform is not a pleasure, it is not a luxury, it is a necessity", hammered the head of state in the interview followed by 10 million viewers according to data from Médiametrie, convinced of the relevance of his project which provides for the raising progressive retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
A level that would in any case remain below that introduced years ago by all the other major European partners, including Italy and Germany.
ANSA agency
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He tapped on the table and removed it but the web unleashes speculations (ANSA)
