Around 15,000 join Halloween-weekend protests across France

Around 15,000 people demonstrated across France on Saturday, according to the interior ministry, in protests over education and the rising cost of living. The government said the situation was “generally calm”, as authorities deployed 70,000 police officers to prevent violence after serious unrest at protests earlier this month.

Some demonstrators dressed up for Halloween. At one Paris protest, a slogan read: “Dressed as an angry citizen for Halloween.”

Police had made 27 arrests by about 2pm, the report said. At the same time the previous Saturday, 217 arrests had been recorded. The demonstrations were so far much smaller than those of the previous two weekends.

Protests have been taking place in France for weeks, driven in part by dissatisfaction with the state of education and rising living costs. Demonstrations two weeks earlier had escalated into widespread rioting and looting in several places.