This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

So-called Black Bloc anarchists infiltrated a peaceful climate change march in Paris on Saturday, smashing shop and business windows and torching mopeds and dustbins en route.

Police made more than 120 arrests as the French capital saw a series of demonstrations.

The gilets jaunes (yellow vest protesters) carried out their 45th Saturday of action in the city; there were also demonstrations against the government’s proposed pension reforms in other parts of the city, as well as a separate climate march.

During the afternoon, Black Bloc activists joined the climate march as it headed to the Jardins de Luxembourg and threw missiles at police, who sought to separate the climate demonstrators from those intent on vandalism and violence.

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The police prefecture claimed about 1,000 demonstrators in black masks and hoods, a tactic dubbed Black Bloc, had gathered at the head of the climate cortège and it had been forced to intervene using teargas.

One group of gilets jaunes gathered on the Champs Élysées, officially out of bounds to demonstrations since protesters torched newspaper kiosks there in March. About 7,500 police and gendarmes were deployed to quash any violence, using teargas to disperse crowds.

The yellow vests have protested across France since November 2018. The movement was sparked by government plans to increase fuel taxes, but quickly widened to encompass more general dissatisfaction with Emmanuel Macron’s centrist administration.

Yellow vest demonstrations, which drew more than 280,000 nationwide at their height, appeared to be losing momentum over the summer, but organisers had called for supporters to turn out for a show of strength this weekend to revive the movement.

French police were heavily criticised for the use of rubber bullets and “sting-ball” grenades containing rubber fragments to push back and disperse the demonstrators at past protests.

Saturday was a national heritage day in France, when public buildings and monuments are traditionally open to the public.

The Elysée said president Emmanuel Macron was not in Paris but was “following the situation attentively”.