What happened in Nanterre is not an isolated incident. Across the country, a total of 379 high schools were either blocked or disrupted, to varying degrees. This is the highest figure so far, in the student movement against the retirement reforms.

The government has vowed to crack down on "troublemakers" and guarantee public order, saying that the country will not be held hostage by protesters.

Francois Fillon, Frenc Prime Minister, said, "The government must ensure the normal functioning of our country because nobody has the right to take hostage an entire nation, its economy and its jobs. I realize the difficulties that a lot of our fellow citizens are going through because of the transportation problems of the oil to the petrol stations in many regions.I want to say that it is unfair to sanction the French people through such blockage actions."

So far, more than 25-hundred petrol stations across the country have run out of supplies. Up to half of flights on Tuesday out of Paris' Orly airport were scrapped, and 30 percent of flights out of other major French airports, including the country's largest, Charles de Gaulle, serving Paris, were cancelled.