An officer collapses as violence breaks out between police and protesters

A police officer had an alleged heart attack Saturday night as violence erupted at the end of the 19th anniversary of yellow vests (yellow vest) in Paris and other French cities.

Riot squads fired tear gas to disperse a dissident group of protesters heading for the Place de la Republique in Paris from Montmatre, north of the city.

The group had burned garbage cans and destroyed the entrance to a bank while they were coming down the square.

However, their security cordon was blocked by a cordon of security forces, including some of more than 6,000 deployed in the capital.

Protesters fled to the surrounding streets.

"Given the number of officers deployed and the situation they faced, the day went well," LCI TV channel spokesman Pierre Puente told AFP. one of the police brigades.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that nearly 41,000 people took to the streets in France.

Some 5,000 of them gathered in Paris Saturday for the 9 km walk between Denfert-Rochereau in the south of Paris and Montmartre.

Yellow Vest demonstrators, gathered every weekend to complain about the government's policy, were forced to make a detour after traditional badembly sites around the National Assembly and near the Champs-Elysees were designated. as prohibited areas.

Difficult position
The exclusion is part of the crackdown imposed by the new head of the Paris police, Didier Lallement.

Castaner hired him on Monday to replace Michel Delpuech, who had been fired for his disastrous treatment of yellow vests in Paris on March 16th.

The Fouquet & # 39; s restaurant was set on fire with several newsstands along the Champs-Elysees. Stores and shops were also ransacked.

Outside of Paris, several thousand protesters were taken out of an exclusion zone from Capitol Square in Toulouse to Nice. About sixty people were arrested during clashes with police who left a woman aged seventy to the hospital following her fall.

"I send my best wishes to her and the policeman," Castaner said. "The order was kept.New politicians arrested people who came for the violence.

"We have given people the opportunity to protest, I want to thank the security forces and the emergency services, but we remain determined and vigilant."