At least a million protesters have demonstrated in cities across France in the biggest and most persistent challenge, to economic reforms anywhere in Europe.

 

Striking public sector workers, disrupted travel across France, and sporadic violence flared up at protest marches, as opponents of President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reform made a last-ditch attempt to stop it.

Oil refinery workers, airport staff, train drivers, teachers, postal workers and guards who supply cash machines have gone on strike in France. on Tuesday, hundreds of flights were cancelled, long lines formed at gas stations and train services in many regions was cut in half.

The protestors have been fighting against the government's plans of raising the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60.

Students entered the fray last week, blockading high schools around the country and staging protests.

At a high school in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, a few hundred youths started throwing stones from a bridge at police, who responded with tear gas and barricaded the area.