Tirana under heavy police deployment

While the France protests drew the largest numbers on Saturday, a second front of civil unrest in Europe opened in Albania, where the capital has seen continuous demonstrations for nearly two weeks. Authorities deployed more than 2,000 police around Tirana on the 12th day of student-led protests, amid reports of efforts to stop demonstrators entering the capital.

The movement began over a planned resort backed by the Trump family and championed by Jared Kushner, but it has grown into a broader campaign demanding the resignation of prime minister Edi Rama. Teachers, doctors and labour unions have since joined the students.

• •More than 2,000 police deployed around Tirana on the protests' 12th day
• •The movement began over a Kushner-backed resort plan
• •It now demands the resignation of Edi Rama, in power for 13 years
• •Teachers, doctors and labour unions have joined the students

Rubber-bullet injuries at the Albanian marches

Kei Brisku, head of the Albania Rehabilitation Centre for Trauma and Torture, said at Tirana's National Trauma hospital that nine protesters - five women and four men - were badly wounded by rubber bullets that day and were in hospital.

Brisku added that the indiscriminate use of rubber bullets against crowds is unacceptable, because it risks harming peaceful protesters and bystanders who pose no threat.

Rama, who has been in power for 13 years, refused to resign. He offered to discuss the students' legitimate concerns but ruled out talking with hooligans who resort to violence, and dismissed accusations of underhand tactics over the Kushner resort.

Protests spread to Italy

Demonstrations were held in Rome, Turin and other Italian cities, some of them turning violent. Rome locked down its luxury shopping streets and stepped up controls around the Circus Maximus and Piazza del Popolo.

• •A small number of protesters tried to force their way into Rome's Colosseum, but were ushered out by guards
• •Several hundred students demonstrated peacefully in Rome to stress they were not rioters, after unrest the previous week, particularly in Milan
• •At a separate anti-war march in central Rome, organisers urged participants to keep faces uncovered and hands visible

That anti-war march briefly clashed with police near Piazza della Repubblica. Police used batons and teargas and a water cannon, and protesters retreated about 500m away.

Riccardo Ponzio, national president of an Italian far-right student association, said the images from last week were terrible for young people and for students who do not accept being represented by those who devastate entire cities.

France: arrests and injured after Saturday's marches

The French figures framed the same Saturday across the continent. Interior minister Laurent Nunez said police arrested almost 1,000 people during Saturday's cost-of-living protests across France, and that the number would rise as more police data became available. He said two people were seriously injured, including a 20-year-old man in Toulouse who had his fingers blown off; the other serious injury occurred in Clermont-Ferrand, and Nunez gave no details of either case.

• •In Paris, several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including about 500 individuals identified as rioters, and ensuing clashes lasted around two hours
• •At Porte de Vincennes, masked men dressed in black threw glass bottles and stones at police, who responded with teargas, water cannon and stun grenades; a bin was set alight and fireworks fired at police
• •Nunez reported first-time clashes in Cannes and Montpellier between far-right activists and ultra-left militants claiming to protect businesses
• •More than 3,000 checks were carried out in Paris and 65 people were arrested there, according to Paris police

The Paris demonstration had been confined by authorities to the city's southeastern edge, away from neighbourhoods hit the previous weekend, and was largely peaceful until the violence at Porte de Vincennes. Paris police put the capital's turnout at about 110,000, roughly the same as the previous weekend. Nationally, the government estimated at least 400,000 marchers, with trade unions estimating double that.

The protests also forced closures across the capital. Major museums including the Louvre and the Orsay Museum were shut on Saturday, with a heavy police presence and boarded-up storefronts in the city. The NFL closed its NFL House in Paris on Saturday morning, announced through its OnePass app, citing potential accessibility issues. The closure came a day before the New Orleans Saints were due to play the Pittsburgh Steelers at Stade de France in the NFL's first-ever regular-season game in France.

French authorities said they would remain on high alert through the night and into Sunday, while in Tirana Rama refused to resign but offered to discuss the students' legitimate concerns.