Interior Ministry, '219 arrested in France and 10 agents slightly injured'

The French Interior Ministry announced in the evening that at least 219 people were stopped across the country during today's protests. The ministry also reported that 10 police officers suffered minor injuries. Le Figaro writes it.

"The situation on the national territory remained generally under control, despite incidents in several cities including Marseille, Grenoble, Lyon, Bordeaux, Poitiers, Montpellier, Toulouse, Tours, Saint-Étienne, Angers, Nancy, Lille and Rouen," the ministry added in its end-of-day report.

Beauvau specified that "mortars were thrown at the police", while "street or commercial furniture was damaged and rubbish bins were set on fire".

The Interior Ministry stressed that these incidents were "provoked, as expected, by high-risk groups composed of radical and far-left activists", accused of having "attempted to incite violence during demonstrations". "The intervention of the police was systematic in order to foil these actions", reported the ministry, also deploring the "violent attack against journalists in Lyon".