FURIOUS French rioters defied protests bans as thousands swarmed the streets and clashed with cops in a fourth weekend of chaos.
Police launched tear gas and stun grenades as a fresh wave of fury saw bikes and wheelie bins set ablaze – with some 45,000 marching through the barricaded boulevards of Paris.
Around 3,000 shops have been ransacked and more than 4,000 people arrested as France confronts its worst rioting spree in recent years.
Over – with numbers dwindling to 146,000 on Saturday – although unions claim some 250,000 left to protest.
The eatstern city of Lyon bore the brunt of the violence with rioters defying bans on protest after torching a tourist office in the city last week.
Police fired tear gas to disperse several hundreds of people who had gathered to block a road during an unauthorised protest.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez deployed 70,000 cops on Saturday in what was described as “Act IV” of the ongoing riot battles.
Certain protests routes through Paris had been banned by police – but several rebel members of the Yellow Vest movement shirked the shut down and demonstrated close to the National Assembly – France’s equivalent of the House of Commons.
Cops arrested some 20 members including one of the group’s leaders Benjamin Ball and spokeswoman Azelma Sigaux.
The vast anti-government protests have plunged the entire nation into chaos and left dozens wounded.
One teen who lost an eye from a rubber pellet fire by police and one demonstrator had his hand blown off by a stun grenade.
Panicked French leaders in a desperate bid to fight mob chaos on the country’s embattled streets.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez vowed to crack down with “an extremely firm response” on any “acts of violence”.
He added that an attempted murder probe had been launched over petrol bombs hurled at cops during a .
showed a police officer engulfed in flames while battling rioters as around 3,000 shops were broken into and looted.
More than 4,000 people have been arrested in the past month, with hundreds wounded.
It comes as more than 600,000 people took to the streets in what has been dubbed a “black Thursday” for France.
The as flaming garbage heaps littered the streets and swarms of teens flooded the capital.
About a third of France’s high schools were closed or unable to operate on as some students set up blockades and teachers went on strike.
Hooded and masked thugs set Françoise high school in Tournefeuille ablaze after they let off fireworks at the premise.
Witnesses described the horrific blaze as an act of “guerrilla warfare”.
A teacher at the school told local media outlet La Dépêche: “They came to destroy everything.
“What unfolded this morning was in no way a blockade, nor even a student protest.
“These were not students who had come to voice their demands – they were individuals who had come to terrorize, ransack, and set fires. And they succeeded.”
