PARIS: Around 420 people were arrested on Thursday during protests across France against a youth jobs programme, mainly for violence, vandalism and attacks on security forces, police said. In the central Paris area of Invalides, police said that 140 people were arrested after violent incidents and clashes with security forces. A total of 18 officers were slightly injured in clashes around the country, they said.Rampaging French youths set fire to cars and looted shops, marring protests the law, which Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had agreed to discuss with unions. Aides said that Villepin would meet senior trade union officials on Friday to try to defuse a crisis that has triggered a national strike threat and drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters on to French streets. In Paris, riot police fired teargas in clashes with youths, dubbed "casseurs" by the French, in the Invalides areas near the Foreign Ministry, witnesses said.
Youths threw stones at police and set fire to the door of an apartment building in running battles at the end of a largely peaceful rally by thousands of students and workers against the CPE First Job Contract. "This time, there are lots of young criminals on the march who are there to steal and smash. This discredits the movement," said Charlie Herblin, a 22-year-old worker on the Paris march