Violence erupts in new Paris protest against security law

Violence erupted in Paris on Dec. 5 for the second consecutive weekend at a mass protest against a new security law, with demonstrators clashing with police, vehicles set alight and shop windows smashed.

The weekly nationwide protests are becoming a major headache for President Emmanuel Macron's government, with tensions intensified by the beating of a black music producer by police last month.

Members of the so-called yellow vests movement, which shook Macron with protests against a lack of equality in France over the winter of 2018-2019, were also prominent in the rally.

Windows of a supermarket, property agency and bank were broken while several cars were in flames along Avenue Gambetta as thousands of demonstrators marched towards the central Place de la Republique, AFP reporters said.

Objects were also thrown at police who responded by using tear gas, in a repeat of the violent scenes from the protests last weekend against the security law that would restrict publication of pictures showing the faces of police.

Some demonstrators used objects left in the streets to create impromptu barricades that they then set on fire. A bank was ransacked by protesters who broke inside and brought out papers that they burned in the street.

Protesters, some letting off smoke bombs and firecrackers, shouted slogans including "Everyone hates the police".

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter that police in Paris were facing "very violent individuals".

Thirty people have been detained so far on Dec. 5, Paris police said on Twitter, with a police source blaming the violence on up to 500 radical individuals who took part.

It was one of almost 100 protests planned throughout France on Dec. 5 against the...