File photo: Place des Terreaux, Lyon, January 2024 demonstration, Romainbehar, CC0, cropped and resized / Source: Wikimedia Commons
BREAKING World · 17:16
France: nationwide strikes and marches; clashes in Lyon, school fire near Toulouse
French unions staged a nationwide day of strikes and protests on Thursday, 5 November, over wages, the cost of living and education. The CGT union said more than 250,000 people were demonstrating in 73 cities by the afternoon. In Lyon, the préfecture counted 30,500 marchers and organisers 55,000; police used tear gas against several hundred black-clad protesters. Near Toulouse, a high school in Tournefeuille was deliberately set on fire; pupils were evacuated and no one was hurt.