'Yellow vests' protester numbers on rise once again

PARIS－The number of protesters in the latest "yellow vests" rallies across France surged on Saturday, but there was a marked decline in violence despite hundreds of arrests and clashes with police in Paris and other cities.

More than 84,000 people turned out for the ninth round of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron since November, the interior ministry said, up from 50,000 the previous Saturday.

Attendance had declined over the Christmas holiday break, and while Saturday's turnout was higher than the 66,000 protesters on Dec 15, it was still far below the nearly 300,000 when the rallies began two months ago.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that "responsibility triumphed over the temptation of confrontation" in Paris, where 8,000 protesters marched "without serious incident", up from 3,500 last week.

He also hailed the 80,000 officers deployed nationwide, including 5,000 in the capital.

However several journalists were assaulted at rallies in several cities, as well as a security officer accompanying LCI television reporters who was surrounded and beaten by marchers, some wearing yellow vests, in the northern city of Rouen.

"In our democracy, the press is free. In our Republic, the freedom to inform is unalienable. Assaulting journalists is an attack on both," Castaner tweeted.

For the first time organizers of the Paris march deployed teams wearing white arm bands to corral the march that began near the Place de la Bastille.

"We're guiding the march to make sure they keep to the route and avoid confrontations, so they don't respond to police provocations", one of the "white bands", who gave his name as Anthony, told Agence France-Presse.

But scores of protesters later clashed with riot police at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, prompting volleys of tear gas and water cannon as security forces prevented them from reaching the heavily fortified Champs-Elysees.

The protesters began to disperse as night fell, however, and police began removing armored vehicles and trucks in an atmosphere of relative calm－TV images later showed a guitarist crooning not far from the police lines.

Police detained 244 protesters nationwide, 201 of which were taken into police custody, the interior ministry said.

Despite being embroiled in protests, the capital also saw a powerful explosion blowing apart a bakery on Saturday, killing three people and injuring dozens as it blasted out windows and overturned nearby cars.

Officials said the cause of the blast appeared to be an accidental gas leak.

Witnesses described the sound of the explosion as deafening. Firefighters pulled injured victims out from broken windows and evacuated residents and tourists as a fire raged and smoke billowed over Rue de Trevise in the 9th arrondissement of north-central Paris.

The French Interior Ministry said two firefighters and a female Spanish tourist were killed by the blast and about 10 of the 47 wounded were in critical condition.

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell tweeted that "I deeply regret the death of three people after the explosion in central Paris, including a Spanish woman." He offered condolences to her relatives and "wishes for a quick recovery."

AFP/AP