French students protest new labor law

PARIS – Riot police fired rubber pellets and tear gas at youths who pelted them with stones and torched cars in the heart of Paris on Thursday, a violent turn in nationwide protests against a new labor law that brought a quarter-million people onto France’s streets.

Police and rioters waged a back-and-forth battle amid acrid clouds of tear gas outside the Sorbonne University on the Left Bank. Several hundred youths threw firebombs, chunks of pavement, metal crowd-control barriers, and tables and chairs taken from nearby cafes. Five cars were overturned, and several were torched.

Police responded with a water cannon, tear gas, baton charges and rubber pellets to disperse the rioters, who formed a very small minority of demonstrators. Paris police said they took 150 people into custody, and 35 officers were injured.

Earlier, the protest had been boisterous but peaceful, with tens of thousands of students whistling, chanting and beating drums. In all, police said some 247,000 protesters participated in nearly 200 marches across the country.

The groundswell of protest poses a major test for Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and his ideas for revitalizing France.

Unions and students plan to march together on Saturday.

Their anger focuses on a new form of job contract championed by Villepin that will allow employers to fire young workers within their first two years in a job without giving a reason.

The government says the flexibility will encourage companies to hire thousands of youths, bringing down unemployment rates that run at 23 percent among young adults and around double that in some of the depressed suburbs that were shaken by weeks of riots last fall.