Yellow vest protesters in France have struck upon a new way to make their point during their weekly demonstrations – hurling faeces at the police.

Gilets jaunes marchers, who have been gathering across France every Saturday since November, have been spotted in several different cities filling bags with faecal matter and then throwing them at officers who are shepherding the protests.

A police trade union official from Marseille told the AFP news agency that three officers were hit by the unsavoury projectiles on Saturday during the most recent protest.

“Three policemen were soaked through with it,” Rudy Manna said. “The policemen were deeply humiliated.”

The local police headquarters in Marseille confirmed the story and added one policeman even suffered an elbow injury when hit by a “poop-filled projectile”.

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Similar incidents have happened elsewhere, including the southern city of Montepellier.

Police have claimed gilet jaunes on social media have been planning the protests in advance, calling on demonstrators to arm themselves with “cacatovs” – Molotov cocktails but filled with caca, the French slang term for poo.

Mr Manna said the protesters responsible for flinging faeces at officers could not be identified from among the more than 1,000 gilets jaunes who joined the march in Marseille.

Last Saturday’s round of protests and violence was the 16th consecutive round of yellow vest demonstrations in a row.

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Nearly 40,000 people took part in the latest gilets jaunes marches, which have continued despite the president Emmanuel Macron – the focus of the protesters’ anger – announcing a series of concessions and reforms in December.

At their height in December, more than 100 people were injured in widespread riots in central Paris.