Paris (France) (AFP) - AFP has deployed reporters, photographers and video journalists in cities across France to document nationwide cost-of-living protests on Saturday.

Here is a round-up of what they are witnessing as security forces seek to prevent a repeat of violence and looting that erupted on the sidelines of similar demonstrations last weekend.

- ‘Beating up a lot of people’ -

Police used tear gas and baton-charged protesters at the end of the march at Porte de Vincennes on the eastern fringes of Paris.

“The police started moving towards everyone, telling them to get down and back off. They were just taking people down, you know, beating protesters,” said a student, David, who was shaking and bleeding from a gash on his face.

“They were moving really fast and beating up a lot of people. The one of the police officers threw a baton at my face. There was blood everywhere.”

Residents peering out their apartment windows in one classic, Haussman-style building hurriedly slammed them shut and retreated after police fired tear gas near the front door.

- ‘It makes me sick’ -

In northern Lille, where the main march began in a calmer atmosphere than last week, protesters chanted “ACAB” – an English-language acronym condemning police.

After an hour, the first tear gas canisters plunged part of the march into an opaque, stinging haze. A few projectiles were thrown at police. “We got gassed even though we weren’t doing anything,” said Eline, 23, her eyes full of tears. She said she was demonstrating for the first time.

Appoline, 25, admitted she was “terrified” to join the demonstration, having been shocked by images of police action circulating in recent days. She carried a sign that read: “For all those among us who have been maimed”, a reference to people hurt in recent protests.

“I hesitated to come,” said the psychology student. But “when I see young people losing eyes or hands, it makes me sick,” she whispered, as the Lille procession set off in the rain, accompanied by the beat of techno music.

- ‘Warzone’ -

Jeremy Costeweiss, a 21-year-old medical student, told AFP he was attending the march in Paris as he feared “things are going to erupt” and he wanted to help people who may get tear-gassed or hurt in confrontations.

First responder Alexandre B, speaking to AFP in Paris, described last week’s protests as a “warzone”. He said he had handled seven emergency interventions, including two cases of head trauma and two open fractures.

Saturday’s march was “nothing like” the week before, he added.

Umbrellas and hoods went up as the rain began to intensify over Paris.

- ‘Don’t do anything stupid’ -

Several thousand protesters began marching in pouring rain in Bordeaux.

Among them was an older CGT union activist who locked eyes with two masked youths in black tracksuits, and told them: “We’re not here to mess around – don’t do anything stupid.”

At the front of the march, police were nowhere to be seen. “No cops, no problems,” laughed another CGT union member.

- Anger -

Lucie, a 42-year-old designer living in Begles, told AFP at a march in Bordeaux that the violence of last weekend was “unfortunate” but “a form of anger that one can understand”.

“The truth is, if you’ve never known what it’s like to go hungry, to struggle to make ends meet at the end of the month, or to have no idea what your future holds, you can’t truly grasp the kind of anger that can breed,” she said.

- More tear gas -

French police fired tear gas in Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Nantes and Toulouse as the protests went on.

Protesters could be seen running as tear gas canisters were launched in Nantes. Police also used a water cannon as they blocked access to a bridge crossing the Loire river, while some demonstrators hurled small projectiles in their direction.

One protester could be seen kicking back a tear gas canister during a demonstration in Toulouse, while another tried to do the same in Lyon.

- ‘Disappointed’ -

The only authorised march in Paris began at Porte d’Italie with thousands of people walking in a festive, calm atmosphere beneath cool, overcast skies.

Some carried placards with slogans such as “Macron in the corner” – referring to the French president – and “We expected nothing, yet we’re still disappointed”.

“We’re all here because we want to protest peacefully but people also need to understand that the anger is real. We’ve been walked all over for 10 years,” one protester in a Doctor Who hat who gave their name only as Aurore told AFP.

Ynyane, 19, was dressed as Dragon Ball anime hero Son Goku, a costume he chose “to give people hope”.

“Taxes are a bit too high and I have to support people who are struggling,” he added.

- ‘I’m also afraid’ -

High school students who gathered in Toulouse on Saturday spoke of their fears attending a demonstration, after weeks which have seen teenagers wounded and maimed in clashes between police and protesters.

Given the clashes last week and “the repression we faced – which was horrific – I think some people might not be keen on coming today”, 17-year-old Ella, a student at the Lycee Marcelin Berthelot in Toulouse, told AFP.

“I’m also afraid of what might happen to me at a protest these days. But the truth is, we can’t give up. Even with this fear, we’re not giving up.”

- ‘Distressing’ -

At Porte de Vincennes, where the Paris march finished, some businesses had been barricaded, although many had their shutters down.

“It’s distressing. I don’t know where we’re heading,” said Dominique, an employee at a car rental company who preferred not to give her full name. “My grievance is with the rioters – those who come specifically to smash things and to steal.”

- Police are ‘faster’ -

A 21-year-old student protester in Lyon, where demonstrators were tear-gassed on Saturday, said police were “highly mobile”.

“We keep moving around but since the police have vehicles, they’re faster. They manage to break up the groups before they can even really form,” he said.

“We end up exchanging information like criminals. We’re in small groups – sometimes just pairs – trying to share updates and find other people, but it’s extremely difficult.”

- ‘Still open’ -

Near Paris’s Bastille square, a clothing store removed all its merchandise ahead of the demonstrations, while a nearby restaurant was boarded up despite signs insisting it was “still open”. Many retailers in the capital had wooden boards covering windows.

A heavy police presence could be seen at Bastille, where police used a megaphone to tell the small crowd that the planned demonstration had been banned from the area, ordering protesters to go to the alternate route near Porte d’Italie “immediately”.

- Not ‘just one grievance’ -

“I don’t think the French people have just one grievance,” said Aliyah, 22, sitting with her mother Ludovine at a cafe terrace near the Old Port in Marseille as they waited for demonstrations. She said people’s primary concern was rising costs.

“The people are growing poorer, the people are unhappy, so they take to the streets to protest,” she said, adding that bans on the demonstrations in some cities “only makes us more determined to show up”.

- ‘Curiosity’ -

Shops and restaurants were open mid-morning in Grenoble – although a curfew was in place in parts of the city and several shopping centres from 6:00 pm.

Francois-Xavier Chambron, who works at a bar on the city’s Grenette Square, said they planned to stay open at least for lunch, noting that they already had reservations and that people would be around “out of sheer curiosity”.

Demonstrators gathered for an authorised protest in the afternoon where one participant carryied a sign reading: “And so freedom is extinguished under the rain of tear gas”.

- ‘Hotter than fascists’ -

Thousands of people yelling anti-fascist slogans marched in the city of Orleans against a congress by the far-right National Rally (RN) party of Marine Le Pen.

The protest criticised both leading presidential candidate Le Pen and centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

“Macron resign. Le Pen in prison,” the crowd yelled, carrying placards that read “The Youth say ‘screw you’ to the National Rally” and “Hotter than fascists”.

- Tear gas in Lyon -

Police fired tear gas to disperse about 150 protesters in the southeastern city of Lyon, in an area banned to all demonstrations.

Police fired several tear gas grenades to clear a group gathered near a university building and the city police station. Police moved in as protesters tried to block a road.

Earlier a police helicopter could be seen flying over the city, with security forces patrolling and armoured vehicles and riot police vans parked nearby. Shops were boarded up, with private security guards in front of some.

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