More than 1,700 people were arrested across France during the latest round of "yellow vest" protests, in which demonstrators clashed with riot police, the interior ministry said Sunday.
Clashes broke out in several cities, including Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon and Toulouse, during a fourth weekend of nationwide protests against rising living costs and President Emmanuel Macron in general.
A total 1,220 of the 1,723 detained were ordered held in custody, the ministry said.
Police in Paris said they made 1,082 arrests on Saturday, up sharply from 412 in the previous round.
A total of 118 people and 17 police officers were injured during Saturday's Yellow Vest protests across France, the French Interior Minister said late Saturday.
The interior ministry said some 136,000 people took part in Saturday's protests, around the same number as on December 1.
But it was Paris which again bore the brunt of the violence and destruction.
Protesters in the capital set fire to cars, burned barricades and smashed windows in pockets of violence, clad in their emblematic luminous safety jackets, as armoured vehicles rolled through the streets.
City authorities said the 'yellow vests' had caused "much more damage" than on December 1.
"The sector concerned by the incidents was much larger... With fewer barricades, there was much more dispersion, so many more places were impacted by violence," Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire told France Inter radio.
The embattled president -- whose name rang out across the Champs-Elysees as protesters shouted "Macron, resign" -- is expected to address the demonstrations in a much-anticipated speech in the coming days.
On Saturday, protesters wearing bright yellow vests -- dubbed the Yellow Vests -- gathered along the famous Champs-Elysees in the capital Paris, where stores, restaurants, and banks were shut down due to violence.
French police used pepper spray against Yellow Vest protesters along the Champs-Elysees.
During Saturday's protests, the tension between demonstrators and the police flared up from time to time.
Thousands of yellow vest protesters have been gathering in major French cities including Paris since Nov. 17 to protest President Emmanuel Macron's controversial fuel tax hikes and the deteriorating economic situation.
The demonstrators, who generally live in rural areas due to high rents in the cities, have called on Macron to cut fuel taxes and ease their economic difficulties.
According to a recent survey, 84 percent of the French people -- mostly from the middle-income group -- support the protests.
Fuel prices in France have risen more than 20 percent this year.
