Alwaght-International Workers' Day, or May Day, in Paris turned violent on Tuesday after French police fired tear gas on hooded protesters.
Images from Paris showed chaotic scenes, as police attempted to disperse protesters while loud bangs were heard in the background as smoke and tear gas billowed down the streets.
Police pushed back against the protestor by peppering the crowd with tear gas grenades from behind riot shields and hitting the crowd with water cannon. Protesters lobbed firecrackers at the advancing force, and picked up and threw back some of the gas canisters. Armored police vans and fire trucks were backed up advance.
Earlier, law enforcement tweeted there were around 1,200 “hooded and masked” individuals among the May Day demonstrators at the Pont d’Austerlitz bridge in central Paris. On Monday, police warned of possible clashes with far-left anarchists, after calls to make it a “revolutionary day” appeared on social media.
The rioters have torched several vehicles and vandalized shop fronts, including reportedly throwing a petrol bomb through a McDonald’s window.
On Facebook, one group had issued a call to make Tuesday “a day of hell” for French President Emmanuel “Macron and his world”.
In 2017, six police officers were hurt in Paris on May Day, including one seriously by a Molotov cocktail.
