Paris police are firing water cannons on yellow-vested protesters throwing flares and setting fires in one of the French capital's main shopping districts.
Scattered clashes are continuing around the city as the protesters seek to reach the presidential palace and demand President
Emmanuel Macron's resignation. While the situation is tense, police appear to have it more under control than a week ago, when rioting and looting overwhelmed Paris security forces.
The latest flashpoint is not far from the flagship buildings of France's most famed department stores, Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, and near the Palais Garnier opera house. Protesters uprooted trees on one of the neighbourhood's "grands boulevards'' and set them on fire, while others hurled flares and other projectiles at rows of riot police.
Like several neighbourhoods of Paris, the area is largely locked down, with many stores shuttered for fear of violence.
Overall police estimate there are about 8,000 yellow vest protesters in Paris on Saturday, down from last week.
Meanwhile the government deployed 8,000 police in the city, as part of exceptional security measures aimed at preventing a repeat of last week's rioting, which injured 130 people and struck a new blow to France's global image.