For the third weekend in a row, some 5,000 demonstrators gathered in Paris to riot against the government and the high cost of living this past weekend.
More than 100 people were injured — including 16 police officers — and 200 more were arrested in the violence, according to Voice of America, which reported the rioters took over the famed Champs Elysees boulevard, beginning with clashes near the Arc de Triomphe and continuing into the night.
They included many of those who call themselves members of the extremist group “gilets jaunes” — translated into English as “yellow vests.” Police faced roadblocks in some of the streets; rioters also smashed storefront windows, lit fires and hurled rocks at officers who responded with standard mob control methods that included tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons.
Among the group were masked young men, but there were also men and a few women in their 30s and 40s from rural towns in northern and western France as well as from the outer suburbs of Paris — according to a report in The Guardian — which said they “came dressed and armed for combat.
A list of demands for the government includes the cancellation of next month’s tax hike on gasoline and diesel.
This weekend the group is calling for another riot.