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A restaurant in the centre of Paris has been engulfed in flames amid the nationwide ‘Block Everything’ protest attended by almost 200,000 people today.
Fire raged in Wafu Bar on Rue St Denis – one of the many consequences of the demonstrations against Emmanuel Macros, the political establishment and planned budget cuts.
Footage showed flames licking the building’s façade as a man was seen climbing down a scaffolding on the building next door, in a race for his life.
France came to a standstill as police clashed with protesters who blocked roads across the country and set more than 100 fires.
Authorities said they had even ‘thwarted’ an ‘intrusion attempt’ on Gare du Nord in Paris, where the Eurostar runs.
Hundreds of youths had gathered outside, chanting anti-Macron slogans.
One carried a placard with the Tricolor flag and the slogan ‘The rich elite’s Republic’.
Sorbonne student Emma Meguerditchian, 17, said: ‘We have come to make some noise.
‘We want them to know we can’t take this any more, we want another type of government.’
As many as 473 people were arrested during hundreds of rallies after the government mobilised more than 80,000 police officers and gendarmes.
This comes after the French parliament ousted prime minister Francois Bayrou in a confidence vote over his plans to tame the country’s ballooning debt.
This led Macron to appoint his fifth prime minister in less than two years, choosing a close ally, Sebastien Lecornu, which outraged left-wing politicians.
Fred, a CGT union official at the Paris public transport company RATP, said: ‘It is the same shit, it is the same, it is Macron who is the problem, not the ministers. He has to go.’
France is under pressure to lower a budget deficit that stands at double the European Union’s 3% ceiling, and a debt pile equivalent to 114% of GDP.
The ‘Block Everything’ movement, which first emerged in May, reflects the anger with what protesters say is a dysfunctional ruling elite.
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