Minister: no state of emergency, but violence condemned

Interior minister Laurent Nuñez, speaking late on Saturday, said the state was not planning to declare a state of emergency despite a day of nationwide France protests that ended in confrontations with police. He put the number of arrests at 400, adding that most of those detained were adults who had not been part of the high school protests that sparked the movement.

Nuñez rejected the violence that followed the official marches. "I very strongly condemn the violence we have seen," he said.

He argued that the authorised demonstration had been taken over by casseurs, describing them as "opportunistic delinquents who had seen a chance to pillage and loot … we will find them and deal with them firmly".

Macron's appeal for calm on the eve of the marches

The interior minister's remarks came after President Emmanuel Macron had already appealed for calm on Friday, the day before the marches. "There is a constitutional right to protest and to express oneself, and I have always been vigilant and attentive that that right is fully respected," the president said.

Macron paired that assurance with a warning about how the right is exercised. The right to protest, he said, "comes with the need to respect. Respect for people, respect for property, and therefore a commitment not to insult or destroy".

He also denounced as "unacceptable" the potential presence of people "solely to cause damage and create unrest".

How the day turned violent

Hundreds of thousands of people had taken to the streets across the country, with tensions erupting on the fringes of marches over absent teachers, decrepit school buildings and police violence. In central Paris and in Marseille, those fringes turned into open confrontation.

Near Place de la République in central Paris, a peaceful march gave way to violence. Police fired teargas at black-clad and masked rioters who threw fireworks and paving stones, attacked a bank and looted a sports shop.

The destruction spread through the streets around the route:

• •Rioters set wheelie bins and a lorry on fire, and the flames spread to a nearby building.

• •Dozens of shops along Boulevard Magenta were broken into and looted.

• •In Marseille, protesters stormed the town hall, using security barriers to ram the door and briefly getting inside before police removed them; one protester spray-painted an "A" for anarchy on a wall.

Rubbish bins were also set alight in Marseille, where protesters in hi-vis vests blocked streets.

What happens next

French authorities said they had detained dozens of protesters across the country and expected more arrests in the coming days. The detention figures Nuñez gave late on Saturday put the total at more than 400, most of them adults unconnected to the high school demonstrations.

At the same time, the police watchdog is investigating at least two dozen allegations of police violence. The prime minister has said more than 900 police officers had been injured in recent weeks.