France deploys 70,000 police as Yellow Vests, unions march for second weekend

France mobilised 70,000 police nationwide on Saturday as a coalition of Yellow Vest activists, labour unions and students marched across the country, a week after demonstrations that drew at least 550,000 participants and descended into looting and ransacking.

Authorities banned all protests in Marseille and Lyon, France's second and third-largest cities, citing the risk of fresh violence. Officers were equipped with batons, tear gas, sound grenades, foam-round launchers and riot shields fitted with strobe lights; electric stun guns were prohibited in crowd-control operations, the French National Police said.

President Emmanuel Macron postponed a planned visit to Nigeria and Senegal, convened his defence council of senior ministers and met representatives of secondary-school pupils. The student delegates emerged from those talks calling on pupils to keep protesting until the government put forward concrete proposals to address their demands.

Critics including families of injured teenagers have called for bans on foam-round launchers and tear gas, echoing demands made since the 2018 Yellow Vest protests. United Nations guidance states that kinetic impact projectiles should target the abdomen and never the head, face or neck, and should not be fired from elevated positions or at close range.