Worst violence occurs in Paris but trouble also flares in Berlin, St Petersburg and Sweden

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Police and protesters have clashed, sometimes violently, in cities across Europe as tens of thousands of trade unionists, anti-capitalists and other demonstrators marched in traditional May Day rallies.

The worst confrontations were in Paris, where riot police fired teargas and stingball grenades as a 40,000-strong crowd, included gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protesters and an estimated 2,000 masked and hooded “black bloc” activists, marched from Montparnasse station to Place d’Italie.

While most of the marchers were peaceful, more than 250 people were arrested after police were hit with stones, bottles and other projectiles.

May Day rallies around the world: Wednesday's top photos Read more

Authorities had warned there could be trouble at this year’s May Day marches after months of chaotic gilets jaunes protests in the French capital, in which shops and restaurants have been ransacked and set on fire. Anarchist and other anti-capitalist groups called on social media this week for Paris to become “the capital of rioting”.

More than 7,400 police and gendarmes were on duty on Wednesday with orders to respond firmly in what the government called “a security operation on an exceptional scale”. Streets and several metro stations were closed and 580 businesses boarded up along the route of the march.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A protester kicks at the window of a bank in Paris. Photograph: Ian Langsdon/EPA

Nearly 200 motorcycle units were deployed across the French capital to respond quickly to flare-ups of violence, and drones used to track protesters’ movements. About 12,500 pre-emptive searches were also carried out under new zero tolerance anti-riot laws that also make it an offence to wear a mask during street protests.

France’s trade unions expressed disappointment at seeing their traditional May Day march for workers’ rights descend into violence, but said they understood protesters’ frustrations after a speech by President Emmanuel Macron last week which they said failed to address their concerns over high taxes and falling living standards.

In Berlin, police scuffled with 20,000 mainly leftwing demonstrators in protests foucsed on the eastern district of Friedrichshain where there is anger at the rapid spread of gentrification in parts of the city formerly behind the iron curtain.

Demonstrators chanted “the streets are ours” and “anti-capitalism”. Some, dressed in black and wearing masks, lit flares from apartment balconies.

A total of 5,500 police officers were on duty for the day. They detained some protesters but a police spokesman did not give any exact numbers.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Security forces face protesters in Berlin on Wednesday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

There were arrests, too, in the Swedish town of Kungälv, about 20km north of Gothenburg, where protesters threw cobblestones and fireworks at police as they were kept away from reaching an officially sanctioned rally by a neo-Nazi group; and in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, where police circled a group of hooded youths in black.

In Italy, three people including a police officer were injured when police blocked a demonstration against a high-speed trans-Alpine rail tunnel between France and Italy by protesters including politicians from the Five Star Movement, part of the coalition government.

More than 100 people were arrested at May Day rallies across Russia, mostly in St Petersburg, an activist group said. Anti-government protesters, including supporters of the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, carried placards saying: “Putin is not immortal” and complained of being manhandled by police.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Riot police try to detain protesters during a rally in St Petersburg. Photograph: Dmitry Yermakov/AP

Spain’s workers marched to make their voices heard before the acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, begins negotiations on forming a new government after Sunday’s elections. Unions want Sánchez to roll back business-friendly labour and tax policies that have remained in place since the previous conservative administration.

Greece, meanwhile, was left without national rail and ferry services for the day as trade unions called a 24-hour strike and rallies to mark labour day. Athens had no public bus, tram or urban rail services, although metro trains were running.

• This article was amended on 2 May 2019. An earlier version incorrectly referenced violence in Gothenburg. This actually occurred in the town of Kungälv, about 20km north of Sweden’s second city.