France protests: nearly 1,000 arrested as cost-of-living marches sweep the country

Hundreds of marches over living costs and school funding under a 70,000-strong police deployment, a week after violent unrest.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said nearly 1,000 people had been arrested on the sidelines of Saturday's nationwide protests, and warned the figure was likely to rise. By early afternoon Paris time the count stood at 135. Many of those arrests followed pre-emptive searches that turned up fireworks, ball bearings and other items that could be used as weapons. Police in Paris also seized weapons and gas masks. Hundreds of marches took place against the rising cost of living and the state of France's schools. The government put turnout at 410,000; organisers claimed nearly 800,000. Police said the main Paris march drew 110,000 people and reached its destination without major incident. More than 3,000 people were stopped and checked in the capital and 65 were arrested. About 70,000 police were deployed to prevent a repeat of the violence of 17 October. Officers fired tear gas in Lyon and Nantes, some marches were banned in major cities, and shops, museums and metro stations closed in Paris. "We have to be ultra, ultra responsive," Nuñez told reporters. "It is going to be a long day." For New Delhi, which counts Paris among its closest strategic partners in Europe, a second weekend of mass unrest is a sign of how much domestic pressure the French government is under. Reporting by BBC News, France 24, AFP and Reuters.