Today's protests stretch the length and breadth of France. Here is a selection of images from across the country as hundreds of thousands of people gather to demonstrate against President Macron's pension reforms.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA

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Image source, Getty Images

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Further scuffles between protesters and police are breaking out on the Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle in Paris where "the atmosphere has changed completely," a reporter for BFMTV on the scene says.

"It's very tense... We didn't expect it to get out of hand so quickly," she adds, before the line with the studio cuts.

The CGT union said 800,000 people have gathered in the capital - the highest number so far.

The interior ministry has not shared its estimate yet.

Image source, Reuters

French channel BFMTV have said that "at least 350-400 people" all dressed in black are using "big" fireworks and targeting a McDonald's in the Strasbourg-St Denis area.

The police are reportedly pushing back with tear gas but the huge number of people present are making it hard to disperse the "troublemakers", a reporter at the scene said.

But the demonstration is very well attended, and it's important to point out the majority of protesters are very peaceful, the reporter adds.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

There have been big turnouts in a number of French cities - 320 protests were due to take place across the country.

Some of the biggest demos have been in the south, in Marseille, Nice and Toulon, although the numbers are strongly contested. The port at Marseille has been blocked by demonstrators for a second day.

Further north in Lyon hundreds of railway workers, students and others have taken to the tracks disrupting trains.

In Rennes, in the north west, police fired water cannon and tear gas as some masked protesters erected barricades.

Image source, AFP

A police station and a local prefecture office came under attack in the town of Lorient. Fires were started outside the police station and one police officer, Linda Kebab, said some of her colleagues had been violently attacked.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the attacks were unacceptable and could not go unpunished.

In Normandy in the north thousands of turned out in the cities of Rouen, Caen, Le Havre and Dieppe. Riot police fired tear gas in Rouen as some protesters threw stones.

Marianne Baisnee
Reporting from Paris

The Paris police told us that police were "targeted around the Place de la République" and that the "attackers" were repelled with tear gas.

They also told us that as they had expected, there are around 1000 "troublemakers" among the peaceful protesters.

Marianne Baisnee
Reporting from Paris

Karen Dessaint, 42, is a social worker from Seine St Denis in the Paris region.

She says: "The reform is going too far. The majority of the French are against this reform - we need a show of strength because we will all lose our social gains."

"There is money, it’s about a better distribution of it. It is about choosing what society we want. Macron should be careful because people have no future prospects left, they have nothing more to lose," she says.

"He's going to have to put his arrogance away. A lot of people are very angry."

Image source, European Commission

Away from the protests across France, President Emmanuel Macron has joined EU leaders in Brussels for their March summit.

Pensions are very much not on his agenda today. EU leaders are due to talk about support for Ukraine as well as boosting economic competitiveness - and France is in the middle of a spat with Germany over banning sales of new fossil fuel-powered cars from 2035.

Image source, Reuters

If you’re just joining our coverage of the protests erupting across France, or need a recap, here are the latest developments:

• Today is the ninth day of nationwide protests and strikes in France
• The unrest follows the government’s decision to push through legislation that will raise the pension age from 62 to 64.
• French President Emmanuel Macron defended the move yesterday and is attending the European Council summit in Brussels today
• Hundreds of thousands of protesters are joining gatherings across French towns and cities
• Place de la Bastille in Paris is currently the site of a large demonstration and thousands have joined marches in the southern cities of Marseille and Nice
• Tear gas has been used in the western city of Nantes and water cannons have been operated to disperse crowds in Rennes
• Almost 300 French personalities, including actor Juliette Binoche, have written an open letter stating their opposition to Macron’s pension reform
• The unrest could impact Sunday's visit of King Charles III to France - his first state visit to the country since he became monarch

Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris

At what point do strikes and protests begin to have an effect? At what point does a government give way? Is it too late for the pension law to be dropped? And if yes, what is the point of keeping on protesting?

Many opponents are galvanised by memory of the 2006 debacle over the so-called CPE. This was a new employment contract for young people, which the conservative government of the day hoped would solve youth unemployment.

The measure was pushed through by the same constitutional device - the 49:3 - as today’s pension reform.

But in the face of a wave of protests, the then President Jacques Chirac buckled. He had the law promulgated, but its effects immediately cancelled out by another law.

Protesters want the same thing to happen again. But the last person Emmanuel Macron wants to emulate is Jacques Chirac - who has gone down as a presidential byword for affable ineffectuality.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

President Macron was in a defiant mood ahead of today's strikes: "Do you think I enjoy doing this reform? No." His aim was to soothe French anger, but he appears to have stoked it.

He says France has to balance the books. When he started working, he told TV viewers, there were 10 million people drawing a French pension and now there were 17 million.

As France's pay-as-you-go system means today's workers pay for today's retirees, he said "the longer we wait, the more [the deficit] gets worse". It was in the national interest, he argues, and he put that above opinion polls.

Certainly many workers around Europe will wonder what the problem is if the pension age goes up from 62 to 64. But these reforms also mean paying into the system for 43 years rather than 42. And the unions argue the real age of retirement across Europe averages out at under 64.

An Elabe poll suggests 71% of French viewers found Macron unconvincing, while 61% believe he's only raised tensions even more. Opposition to the reforms has risen to 72%, external, Elabe says, and while three quarters of those surveyed condemn violent acts or clashes with police, as many as 42% say they understand them.

The police station in Lorient in Brittany has been set on fire by protesters, French media has reported.

Gerard Darmanin, the minister of the interior, has reacted on Twitter by saying: "The attacks on and defacing of the subprefecture and the police station in Lorient are unacceptable. Thoughts with the injured officers. These acts cannot go unpunished."

Image source, EPA

Tourists to Paris may see their holiday plans considerably disrupted by the ongoing strikes.

Not only were there disruptions at Charles de Gaulle Airport and many train stations earlier today, but popular tourist sites like Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles and the Arc de Triomphe said they would remain closed to the public today because of industrial action.

The mounds of uncollected bin bags lining the streets of the capital may also add an unusual background to tourist selfies.

Today is the ninth day of protests around France. Police in Nantes have used tear gas, while water cannons have been employed to disperse protesters in Rennes.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

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Image source, Getty Images

Paul Pradier
Reporting from Paris

Benjamin Haddad, lawmaker and spokesperson for Emmanuel Macron’s ruling Renaissance Party in the National Assembly, says that because the French president cannot run again in 2027, it gives him “more freedom to be able to reform and pass measures that are not necessarily easy or popular”.

Speaking to the BBC, Haddad said that President Macron “does not have to wake up and look at his opinion polls every morning”.

“He needs to think about the general interest of the country and about the kind of legacy we will leave for next generations when it comes to the debt, the deficit, the question of employment,” he added.

Place de la Bastille in Paris is filling up - the official start of the demonstration is 14:00 (13:00 GMT). There are lots of police present as well as the protesters, says our reporter on the ground, Paul Pradier.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest photos and updates from France.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, Jane Barlow - Pool/Getty Images

The tensions on the streets surrounding President Macron's pension reform could affect King Charles III's first state visit since he became monarch.

He and Camilla, the Queen Consort, are due to arrive in France on Sunday and already French Green MP Sandrine Rousseau has said it should be called off.

"Is it a priority really to receive Charles III at Versailles? No," she said yesterday.

The whole idea of the visit is to celebrate Franco-British friendship, so as well as dinner at Versailles and a trip down the Champs-Élysées, there'll be a visit to Bordeaux too.

Downing Street has said today it's not aware of any plans to change the plan, so the Bordeaux trip especially will come under scrutiny.

Left-wing figure Olivier Besancenot said earlier this month that King Charles would be welcomed with a "good old general strike", while some union leaders in the south-west are planning to ruin plans for a tram-ride into the city centre. Mathieu Obry of the hardline CGT union told French media: "We're going to make sure there's no tram."

Paul Pradier
reporting from Paris

Speaking to the BBC, lawmaker Jean-Claude Raux from the opposition Ecologist group in Parliament said that “nobody is calling for violence, but the people feel like they are not being listened to, therefore the anger spreads quickly”.

“The government and the majority in parliament say they are open to compromise, but they are not. They are open [to compromise] when you agree with them. They need to change this because the situation is clearly difficult for everybody,” Raux added.

The Fédération Indépendante et Démocratique Lycéenne (FIDL), the union of high school students, said this morning, external that more than 400 high schools are currently “blocked”.

This means the students have turned up to school but aren’t attending classes and are instead setting up a sort of picket line in front of the building.

The FIDL says this is a “historic” achievement.

In an open letter published on Wednesday in the daily Liberation, almost 300 French personalities including actor Juliette Binoche and director Cédric Klapish stated their opposition to the pension reform, joining Nobel prize for literature winner Annie Ernaux who had already expressed her opposition in January.

Calling the reform “unfair and ineffective”, the letter says:

• Back in January, France's government proposed raising the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 in a major reform to the pension system
• PM Elisabeth Borne said the changes were necessary to prevent a major deficit in the system in the future
• But the details immediately triggered an angry response from the unions. Over a million people joined the first protests across the country in January
• Two months of heated political debate and strikes followed
• Transport, fuel distribution and waste collection have been heavily impacted
• Last week - on 17 March - the French government decided to force the pension reforms through without a vote in parliament. PM Borne invoked article 49:3 of the constitution - allowing the government to avoid a vote in the Assembly
• Protests have intensified since - with some demonstrators lighting fires and throwing firecrackers at police, who used tear gas to disperse them
• Yesterday - 22 March - President Macron doubled down on the reform which he said is "a necessity"
• Union leaders along with the far-right National Rally and far-left France Unbowed parties have united in anger and promised to continue striking