At least 108 police injured and 291 held in May Day protests in cities across France

French police fired teargas and clashed with demonstrators in Paris and other cities on Monday after trade unions transformed their traditional Labour Day marches into anti-government demonstrations against the rise in the retirement age.

At least 108 police were wounded and 291 people detained across France as violence erupted in several cities on the sidelines of the main union-led marches, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, told reporters.

In Paris, the trade union-led demonstration began peacefully with many families joining in, holding banners calling for social justice and demanding Macron resign or withdraw his law to raise the minimum eligible pension age from 62 to 64.

Some Paris bus stops and shop fronts were smashed and graffitied with anti-police slogans. As the march reached its end point at Place de la Nation, police fired teargas and pushed back crowds as demonstrators threw projectiles.

There was also unrest in Lyon, where several cars were set alight and the windows of some businesses were smashed. In Nantes in western France, bins were piled up and set alight in front of an administration building, shop windows were smashed and police fired teargas after protesters threw projectiles. A demonstrator in Nantes was treated by paramedics for a serious injury to his hand.

In Marseille, a group of more than 100 demonstrators briefly occupied a luxury hotel near the old port before being pushed back by police. Teargas was also fired in Toulouse and Rennes.

Police had been given a last-minute go-ahead to use drones as a security measure after a Paris court rejected a petition from rights groups for them not to be used.

In separate protests, environmental activists from Extinction Rebellion sprayed orange paint on the facade of the Fondation Louis Vuitton museum in Paris, which is backed by the luxury goods giant LVMH. A different environmental protest group sprayed orange paint around the Place Vendôme in central Paris, known for its jewellery shops, and targeted the facade of the justice ministry.

Last month, Macron signed into law an unpopular rise in the minimum eligible age for state pensions from 62 to 64, despite months of strikes. There had been sporadic unrest and clashes with police after an executive order was used to push the law through parliament without a vote.

Macron and the government are now trying to move on from the pensions crisis, with the president making several visits to provincial France in recent days, but protesters have booed and banged pots and pans. Trade unions said the mood of anger in France had not subsided.

Unions had called for a big turnout on Monday and the demonstrations were larger than standard Labour Day marches, with hundreds of thousands attending about 300 demonstrations across France.

The far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose National Rally is the biggest opposition party in parliament, held a May Day gathering in the Normandy port of Le Havre, accusing Macron of stoking tensions in society.