Protesters angry with President Emmanuel Macron and his plan to raise the pension age blocked access to an airport terminal sat on train tracks, clashed with police, and threw projectiles at a police station in a day of demonstrations across France.
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Police fired tear gas at protesters in the western city of Nantes. In Rennes, they used water cannons. Also in the west in Lorient, Ouest-France newspaper said projectiles triggered a brief fire in the yard of a police station.
Roissy-Charles De Gaulle airport outside Paris was hit by wildcat action by workers. Near Toulouse in the southwest, burning piles of debris blocked traffic on a highway and sent plumes of smoke into the sky.
Macron broke weeks of silence on the new policy to say he would stand firm and the law would come into force by the end of the year. He compared the protests to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol.
Opinion polls have long shown that a majority of voters were opposed to delaying retirement age by two years to 64.
Voters were further angered by the government's decision last week to push the pension changes through parliament without a vote and by Macron's comments on Wednesday.
The latest wave of protests represents the most serious challenge to the president's authority since the "Yellow Vest" revolt four years ago.
