Yahoo News Thousands take to France’s streets, ignoring government’s calls to halt demonstrations following Strasbourg attack
Protesters across France ignored pleas from the French government to keep off the streets following the Strasbourg terror attack.
According to official figures, around 66,000 demonstrators took to the streets across the country as part of the yellow vest movement.
Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television: "It would be better if everyone could go about their business calmly on Saturday, before the year-end celebrations with their families, instead of demonstrating and putting our security forces to work again."
Earlier on Saturday, a man was killed after he crashed his car into a truck at a protesters’ roadblock on the Franco-Belgian border.
In the capital, police fired water cannons and tear gas in the afternoon to disperse protesters.
Images from the scene show people in yellow vests attempting to break through police lines, near the city’s Champs-Elysees Avenue.
There were stand offs at Opera, where some demonstrators had gathered to voice their grievances.
Some shops in the city closed for the day following the recent violence. However Galleries Lafayette remained open.
Loic Bollay, 44, marching on the Champs-Elysees in a yellow vest, said the protests were more subdued but the movement would go on until the demonstrators' grievances were addressed.
"Since the Strasbourg attack, it is calmer, but I think next Saturday and the following Saturdays...it will come back."
While there were reports of clashes between police and demonstrators in Nantes, Bordeaux and Toulouse.
The French Interior Minister said around 69,000 police were active on Saturday with a reinforced presence in Toulouse, Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne.
The "yellow vest" movement, which takes its name from the fluorescent safety vests French motorists must all have in their vehicles, emerged in mid-November as a protest against fuel tax increases.
It soon morphed into an expression of rage about the high cost of living in France and a sense that President Emanuel Macron's government is detached from the everyday struggles of workers.
Without any clear form or leadership, the movement has attracted a wide range of disgruntled people across the political spectrum, including some violent militants.
