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Riot police have clashed with protesters as thousands of people joined protests in Paris ahead of the French presidential election.

Security officials were forced to protect themselves from flames as the marches turned ugly on Monday afternoon.

Tear gas was fired at groups of youths, while pictures from the scene showed broken glass and burning shopping trolleys.

It came as far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron held high-stakes rallies overlapping with nationwide May Day union marches.

The tense campaigning interrupted the usual calm of the May Day holiday, as supporters of both candidates took to the streets, airwaves and social networks to weigh in on an election closely watched by global financial markets and France's neighbours as a test of the global populist wave.

Mr Macron, an independent, leads his far-right rival Marine Le Pen by around 20 percentage points in the polls.

Many used the traditional May Day union marches to stage a show of force against Le Pen, with some 250 events planned across France.

More than 9,000 security officers were reported to be mobilised on the streets of Paris, with instructions to stop and check vehicles and pedestrians.

The National Front traditionally holds a march in central Paris on May 1 to honour Joan of Arc. At the 1995 event, a group of skinheads broke away and pushed 29-year-old Brahim Bourram off a bridge into the Seine, where he drowned. Then-party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen sought to distance himself from the attackers, but the death drew national outrage.

Standing on the bridge, Mr Macron hugged Bourram's son Said, who was nine years old when his father was killed.

Said, now a chauffeur who supports Mr Macron, said his father was targeted "because he was a foreigner, an Arab. That is why I am fighting, to say no to racism".

Mr Macron insisted that despite Marine Le Pen's efforts to distance herself from her father's anti-Semitism, "the roots are there, and they are very much alive.

"I will not forget anything and I will fight to the last second, not only against her project, but against the idea she has of democracy and the nation."

Jean-Marie Le Pen was set to hold the Joan of Arc event again, a march his daughter wants nothing to do with. Instead, she is holding a rally in an exhibition centre north of Paris.

Marine Le Pen said on France-2 television that the political rupture with her father "is definitive".

She called it a "violent" decision for herself, but said she did it "because the higher interest of the country was at stake".

Her event was by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a conservative candidate from the first-round election who shocked many French by agreeing to be Ms Le Pen's prime minister if she wins the presidency.

Ms Le Pen, speaking on Europe-1 radio, reached out to "all those who are patriots" and who want to restore French borders and currency and "rediscover the voice of labour, defend our identity, fight against Islamic fundamentalism".</s>Clashes have erupted in central Paris between police and demonstrators during May Day protests in the French capital. Protesters pelted Molotov cocktails as police responded with tear gas. Several of the officers caught fire and could be seen engulfed in flames.At least four police officers have been injured in the clashes, AFP reported. At least one officer suffered serious burns.Molotov cocktails have been thrown, police said on Twitter.Tear gas has been deployed by law enforcement to keep the increasingly angry crowd at bay.Fires could be seen burning alongside the road.There has been no information so far on any arrests made.Glass bottles and what may have been gas canisters were thrown at the police, according to RT's reporter from the scene.Police have been blocking routes so the crowds can't move away from a main road.The clashes look set to continue, RT's reporter said, adding that riot police have been prepared to separate two protests, and not let the crowds meet up.On Monday, Parisians gathered in central Paris for a peaceful May Day rally.Demonstrators from French Unions also took to the streets to protest the results of the first round of the French presidential elections, which saw independent candidate Emmanuel Macron being pitted against the right-wing Marine Le Pen in the second round due on May 7.</s>PARIS (AP) — Paris police are firing tear gas at rowdy protesters on sidelines of May Day workers’ march.</s>Police have fired tear gas at protesters on the sidelines of a May Day workers’ march in Paris.

Scores of hooded youths threw Molotov cocktails at security forces who fired back with tear gas during the march on Monday.

The annual march to celebrate workers’ rights this year included calls to block far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen from winning the presidency during a run-off election on Sunday.

Video showed riot police surrounding the protesters disrupting the march after isolating most of them from the rest of the crowd near the Place de la Bastille. However, some continued to lob firebombs that exploded into flames in the street.

It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured in the incidents.</s>Six riot police officers have been injured during clashes with protesters armed with molotov cocktails in Paris on Monday. A group of around 150 people are said to have hijacked the city’s traditional May Day marches, organised every year by France’s unions
• May Day in France: six police injured as violent group hijacks Paris march</s>(PARIS) — With just six days until a French presidential runoff that could define Europe's future, far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron held high-stakes rallies Monday that overlapped with May Day marches and underscored the fact that jobs are voters' No. 1 concern.

France votes for a new president on Sunday, a ballot being watched closely by financial markets and France's neighbors as a test of the global populist wave. While Le Pen got an endorsement from her father on Monday, Macron held an emotional meeting with a Moroccan man whose father died years ago when he was thrown off a Paris bridge by far-right skinheads.

A May Day march attended by thousands of people in Paris was disrupted as scores of hooded youths threw gasoline bombs at riot police in full gear, who responded with tear gas and truncheons. One police officer was seen spraying a troublemaker in the face.

While supporters from fringe movements often disrupt protest marches in the French capital, they usually don't carry signs. Some of the violent protesters at the May Day event had signs referring to the presidential election and expressing dissatisfaction with both candidates in Sunday's runoff election.

"Not one or the other; instead it's the people's self-defense" read one sign. "Macron=Louis XVI, Le Pen=Le Pen," read another.

Workers in the union-organized march want to block Le Pen from getting into power, but offered differing methods on Monday. Some urged French workers to vote for Macron. Others refused to support the centrist, including far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who was eliminated in the first-round vote on April 23.

Wanted or not, Le Pen was praised by her 88-year-old father Jean-Marie, the co-founder of her National Front party. She expelled him from the party in 2015 after he reiterated anti-Semitic comments.

In a speech before a gilded Paris statue of his heroine, Joan of Arc, Jean-Marie Le Pen urged French voters to back his daughter in Sunday's runoff.

"She is not Joan of Arc, but she accepts the same mission ... France," Jean-Marie Le Pen said.

He denounced Macron as a "masked Socialist" backed by the highly unpopular Socialist President Francois Hollande. Macron once served as Hollande's economy minister.

"He wants to dynamize the economy, but he is among those who dynamited it," the elder Le Pen said, referring to France's stagnant economy and jobless rate of around 10 percent.

Marine Le Pen, speaking in a hall north of Paris, also skewered Macron, a former investment banker, calling him a "puppet" of the world of finance and Islamic fundamentalists. Cheers of "Marine President!" and anti-immigrant chants rose up in the crowd of thousands for Le Pen's rally.

Le Pen, who hopes to mimic Donald Trump's election victory, compared Macron to Hillary Clinton. She also sought repeatedly to puncture Macron's argument that he represents change, calling him Hollande's lapdog, the candidate of "the caviar left."

She also claimed that his pro-business policies would not create jobs but send them abroad and leave French workers hungry.

Macron, seeking to remind voters of the National Front's dark past, paid homage Monday to a Moroccan man thrown to his death in the Seine River amid a far-right march over two decades ago. Macron joined the man's son and anti-National Front protesters at an annual commemoration near the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The National Front traditionally holds a May Day march in Paris to honor Joan of Arc. But at the 1995 event, some skinheads broke away and pushed 29-year-old Brahim Bourram off a bridge into the Seine River, where he drowned. The death drew national outrage.

Standing Monday on the same bridge, Macron hugged Bourram's son Said, who was 9 years old when his father was killed.

Said, a chauffeur who supports Macron, said his father was targeted "because he was a foreigner, an Arab. That is why I am fighting, to say 'No' to racism."

Macron said, despite Marine Le Pen's efforts to distance herself from her father's anti-Semitism, "the roots are there, and they are very much alive."

"I will not forget anything and I will fight to the last second, not only against her project but against the idea she has of democracy and the nation," Macron declared.

Polls consider Macron the front-runner in the runoff, but the race has been exceptionally unpredictable.

Over the weekend, Le Pen was endorsed by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a conservative candidate who lost in the first round of voting. Dupont-Aignan shocked many French by agreeing to be Le Pen's prime minister, if she wins the presidency.</s>PARIS (AFP) - Two officers were hurt in clashes between riot police and masked youths during a May 1 march in Paris on Monday (May 1) that carried extra significance six days before the presidential election run-off.

"Masked individuals threw objects and Molotov cocktails at police" who responded by firing tear gas "and two riot police officers were injured", French authorities said.</s>French CRS anti-riot police officers try to push away a burning trolley launched towards them during a march for the annual May Day workers' rally in Paris on May 1, 2017. French CRS anti-riot police officers try to push away a burning trolley launched towards them during a march for the annual May Day workers' rally in Paris on May 1, 2017.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Westport News.</s>French trade unions clashed here during the annual May Day marches ahead of the upcoming second round of the French presidential elections, a minister said.

 

 Several of the union marches ended in clashes on Monday clearly bringing out their differences before the poll scheduled for May 7, Efe news reported.

 

 According to the French Interior Minister, Matthias Fekl, six riot police were injured. Some of the trade unions opposed the right-wing presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, Fekl said.

 

 The police arrested five persons following the incident.

 

 It all started when dozens of people - either covering their faces or wearing helmets - threw Molotov cocktails and stones at the riot police, who then responded with tear gas grenades.

 

 Fekl said that the incidents were produced by "several hundred professional vandals who came with only one goal: to attack security forces, to smash a policeman and wreak damage."

 

 Some of them carried placards denouncing the two options presented -- the Socio-liberal Emmanuel Macron and the Right-wing extremist Marine Le Pen.

 

 This, however, differed from the organisers' view. Although they were against Le Pen but did not claim an explicit support for Macron and his socio-economic policies, or his intention to reform the labour market.

 

 According to the Interior Ministry, around 142,000 people participated in the nationwide demonstrations. Although a major trade union claimed that figure was 280,000.</s>related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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One French police officer was seriously burnt and two others injured in clashes at a May Day demonstration in Paris on Monday in which protesters threw Molotov cocktails and other missiles, the police said.

PARIS: One French police officer was seriously burnt and two others injured in clashes at a May Day demonstration in Paris on Monday in which protesters threw Molotov cocktails and other missiles, the police said.

Television pictures showed policemen trying to shake flames from their riot gear, and of tear gas enveloping the streets around Paris' Bastille monument.

This year's May Day came less than a week ahead of the final round of a presidential election where voters must choose between the far-right National Front's Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Some trade unionists and left-wing activists sought to make the day one of national solidarity against the National Front, mirroring protests in 2002 when Le Pen's father, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, was a candidate.

Marine Le Pen tweeted her support for the injured policemen and said the incident was the type of unacceptable behaviour that she no longer wanted to see on French streets.
Marches in Paris are disrupted as French riot police fire tear gas at violent protesters ahead of the second round of the presidential election.