"Yellow Vest" protesters are demonstrating for the eighth week in a row in Paris on 5 January.
AFP has reported that the French police in Paris have started using tear gas against the "yellow vests", who began to throw bottles and stones at the guards.
There are reports of violence, with protesters fighting police and throwing smoke grenades all over the streets.
During the rally, the protesters set barricades and a barge on fire.
Demonstrators gathered in the morning outside the downtown Hotel de Ville housing the city’s administration.
Protesters were heard singing the national anthem and calling on President Emmanuel Macron to resign. Another group assembled on the Champs Elysees.
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The march began at around 2:00 p.m. local time (13:00 GMT), with thousands heading toward the parliament building past the landmark Notre Dame cathedral.
A Sputnik correspondent said that at one point a small group had separated from the main crowd of protesters and tried to provoke police officers, who responded with tear gas. Protests are also underway in several other major cities, including Marseille and Rouen. Rallies against a planned hike in fuel taxes began in mid-November but soon morphed into a nationwide outcry against the rising cost of living, with thousands clashing with police in Paris last month.
The French government has scrapped its planned hike in diesel taxes that initially sparked the protests, but the yellow vests have since morphed into a broader movement against government policies and rising living costs.
In December, Macron introduced a number of measures aimed at resolving the nation's economic and social crisis and declared a state of economic and social emergency.
The proposed measures included annual bonuses for employees and exemptions from increased social security tax for pensioners earning less than 2,000 euros (over $2,200) per month.