Police took more than 250 people in for questioning and fired tear gas during violent scenes in Paris on Saturday, after the gilets jaunes, or yellow vests, took to the streets of the capital for the first time since lockdown was lifted in May.
Footage and photos taken in the city Saturday show cars set on fire by protesters and tear gas being used by police to disperse them.
As a result of the demonstrations, at least 256 protesters were taken in for questioning and 90 were also issued warnings, Paris police said at 6:20 p.m. local time (12:20 p.m ET).
A pen knife, a bow and a hammer were among the objects seized from those demonstrating, according to a tweet posted by the prefecture.
Although the yellow vest movement had planned four demonstrations on Saturday, the police banned two of them, the Paris police prefecture said in a statement on Friday.
A riot police officer stands near a fire during a yellow vest protest in Paris on September 12.
Police chief Didier Lallement described the banned protests as “parades down the Champs-Élysees” while speaking to French TV station BFMTV on Saturday.
“We cannot have chaos and destruction on the Champs,” he added.
As a precaution, businesses on the avenue were told by the authorities to shut for four hours on Saturday morning and were advised to “place means of protection in front of their establishments.”
The movement, which takes its name from the yellow high-visibility jackets which French motorists must carry in their vehicles, started in November 2018 in opposition to plans to increase fuel prices, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in demonstration.
In its first year, the movement resulted in a 10 billion euro ($ 11.05 billion) aid package for the poor and led French President Emmanuel Macron to back down in the face of protest, something he had said he would not do.
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