PARIS — Riot police clashed with protesters in Lyon on Thursday as a nationwide public sector strike tapped into growing anger over deteriorating services and the rising cost of living.Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower was closed because of the strike.Officers clad in black helmets and protective clothing charged at crowds in Lyon after the demonstrations against rising living costs and in support of the high school protest movement turned violent and fires were set in the streets.
Water cannons were also deployed.Some of the protesters wore gas masks and safety glasses as a precaution against tear gas.Images from Paris showed students and other protesters facing off against riot police.Police were “keeping the situation under control, but it remains tense,” the French Interior Ministry said in a statement at 1 p.m.
local time (7 a.m.ET).
“Several violent acts have been committed as part of the high school student movement,” the statement said.After fireworks were fired at a school near the southern city of Toulouse, a fire broke out “that burned the student services office,” it added.
In the city of Rennes in northwest France, metal pétanque balls were thrown at officers, the statement said, adding that police had been pelted with other projectiles in the cities of Pau and Orleans.Students gather in front of the University of Lyon during a protest demanding more education funding, on Thursday.Laurent Cipriani / APAround 250 rallies against rising living costs had been planned in cities and towns across the country and hundreds of thousands of people would likely turn out, unions said before the events kicked off.France’s main unions, including the CGT and CNT representing public and private sector workers, and the UNEF, representing students, warned the government of President Emmanuel Macron’s that the country was on the brink or recession.
“Everything is going up except wages and pensions,” they said in a joint statement.“Anger is imm...