French police firedtear gas to disperse protesters from Paris's Champs Elysees avenue on Sunday, afew hours after President Emmanuel Macron had reviewed the traditional BastilleDay military parade alongside other European leaders.
The famousboulevard was reopened to traffic as soon as the parade finished, but a fewhundred protesters from the grassroots 'yellow vests' movement tried to occupyit.
Macron and hisguests had already left for the Elysees presidential palace for lunch.
France's BFMtelevision showed images of police firing tear gas to disperse the protesters,some hooded and trying to block the road with metal barricades, dustbins andother debris.
Several loud bangscould be heard. Protesters hurled objects at the police, booed and set bins onfire. Police drove some of the demonstrators to adjacent streets where theyregrouped and set up new barricades, drawing more tear gas fire.
The PolicePrefecture said on Twitter it had ordered the protesters to leave the area, orbe forceably removed.
The number of'yellow vest' protesters has dwindled to a few hundred over the past weeks froma high of around 300,000 nationwide in November when demonstrations startedagainst fuel price hikes and later morphed into a general discontent againstMacron's policies and government.
Paris authoritieshad banned all 'yellow vest' demonstrations near the parade and so few of theprotesters wore the high-visibility jackets that give their movement its name.
But several groupslinked to the grassroots movement had called for gatherings around the ChampsElysees on Bastille Day, a national holiday in France. And earlier a Frenchpolice source and a court source said 152 protesters – whom they linked to the'yellow vest' movement – had been detained near the Champs Elysees as theytried to stage a protest.
