France deploys 70,000 security forces for Saturday protests after last week's riots

France will deploy some 70,000 police officers and gendarmes nationwide on Saturday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced Friday, after last weekend's protests collapsed into widespread rioting and looting.

Nunez warned that "numerous calls coming from the ultra-left and the radical far-left movements" were already circulating on social media. Around 20 gendarmerie armoured vehicles and 15 water cannon trucks will be deployed across the country alongside elite police units.

Damage to shops and public buildings from last weekend's unrest is estimated at several hundred million euros. Some 2,700 people have been taken into police custody in connection with the riots, and 217 have been jailed in fast-track court hearings, the Justice Ministry said on Thursday.

Nunez acknowledged that police had "lost control" during last Saturday's protests. President Emmanuel Macron has blamed "seditious" ultra-left groups for the unrest and said "illegitimate" protests would be banned.

All demonstrations in Marseille and Lyon have been banned, and night-time curfews are in place in parts of Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Nice and Montpellier. Only trade union-organised marches are authorised nationwide.

The Yellow Vest movement plans to march through central Paris on Saturday. France's main student union, UNEF, has also called for rallies, saying they will proceed despite Macron's scheduled meeting with student representatives on Friday.

A separate criminal investigation was opened Friday by France's National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office after a shooting in a Paris suburb left one person dead and four seriously injured, including a 12-year-old. A suspect was arrested; no political motive has been confirmed.