FRANCE, Oct 18: Clashes between police and protesters, massive looting and multiple blazes gripped France on Saturday, as nationwide marches against soaring inflation degenerated into street violence of "extreme intensity".
The widespread unrest follows weeks of student protests and deepens political uncertainty as the country readies for elections in six months' time to replace President Emmanuel Macron.
Whole streets in Paris "have been devastated", the city's mayor, Emmanuel Gregoire, said as groups of masked young men torched parked cars and ransacked many shops.
The violence began on the sidelines of marches in the capital and other cities over the cost of living that the interior ministry said were attended by 550,000 people. The CGT union, which took part, said 800,000 people participated.
Police used tear gas and water cannon against protesters who threw projectiles and aimed fireworks. A 17-year-old boy had his right hand blown off by a crowd-control grenade in the southern city of Saint-Etienne.
The interior minister, Laurent Nunez, said around 400 people were arrested.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu slammed the "violence of extreme intensity" during the day.
- Looting in many cities -
During and after those demonstrations, gangs of youths roamed city streets, sporadically confronting police, while setting fires and attacking shuttered stores to break in and empty their shelves.
Scores of shops -- supermarkets, pharmacies, luxury boutiques, clothing retailers, opticians, cosmetic vendors and consumer electronics stores -- were looted in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lille, Toulouse and Strasbourg.
AFP reporters in Paris saw groups of half a dozen young men often attacking the shops in an organised way: wearing masks and gloves, they first disconnected security cameras before smashing windows to get in.
The looting added to a day of destruction and vandalism, with town halls in several cities targeted.
The one in the city of Limoges -- more than 140 years old -- was largely destroyed by a blaze set by masked protesters who broke in, according to the region's top official. Two others were broken into and vandalised in Marseille and Lille.
A police compound in Bordeaux was also vandalised, while in Lyon protesters set ablaze a tourist office.
Macron vowed on X that "those who carried out vandalism, attacked administrative offices or businesses, or carried out looting -- even in our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished".
Opposition politicians vying to replace Macron in presidential elections in April and May seized on the chaos.
Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen condemned "the rioters" and claimed that the party of her far-left rival for the presidency, Jean-Luc Melenchon, had "legitimised the violence".
She said on X that, if she came to power, she would protect the French "from the violence of the extreme left".
Melenchon, who had prominently supported the demonstrations and the student protests preceding them, urged demonstrators to stay away from any looting, describing it as "contrary to our methods".
- A 'revolution' -
France's Yellow Vest movement, which eight years ago staged street protests against Macron's government over planned fuel tax hikes, had called for 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.
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".
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".
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."
And in the southern city of Montpellier, a giant blue sign reading "The people will win" was unfurled above a central square.
"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.