Demonstrators have torched cars and pelted police with stones and bottles and police fired tear gas and water cannon in Paris as rallies to mark the first anniversary of the anti-government “yellow vest” demonstrations erupted into violence.

A total of 28,000 people demonstrated across France on Saturday including 4700 in Paris, the interior ministry said.

In Paris, police took 124 people in for questioning and 78 people were in custody, authorities said.

Demonstrators, many clad in black and hiding their faces, vandalised an HSBC bank branch at the Place d’Italie. They set trash bins on fire, hurled cobblestones and bottles at riot police, and erected barricades.

Several cars were set ablaze. Police responded with tear gas and blasts from water cannon.

A Journalist has been hit in the face with a missile by one of Macrons' thugs.#policebrutality#YellowVests#giletsjaunes#Acte53#1anDeColere pic.twitter.com/40p05bA4Ub

— Donostia Bai 🎗️🌹 (@Erramun2014) November 16, 2019

Clashes also broke out between demonstrators and police near the Porte de Champerret, close to the Arc de Triomphe, as protesters prepared to march across town towards Gare d’Austerlitz.

Police also intervened to prevent a few hundred demonstrators from occupying the Paris ring road.

Paris police prefect Didier Lallement cancelled permission for a scheduled demonstration in view of the violence.

There were still a few scattered clashes in Les Halles area in central Paris by early evening.

In other cities, yellow vest demonstrations were largely peaceful, with 1000 people marching in Marseille in southern France.

The yellow vest protests, named for the high-visibility jackets worn by demonstrators, erupted in November 2018 over fuel price hikes and the high cost of living. The demonstrations spiralled into a broader movement against President Emmanuel Macron and his economic reforms.

The protests have lost strength in recent months but leaders called for people to turn out on Saturday to mark the anniversary.

Protests have been banned near tourists spots such as the Eiffel Tower and 20 subway stations were closed on Saturday.

The yellow vest movement was one of the toughest challenges to Macron’s presidency before it dwindled in the early summer.

It evolved from nationwide road blockades into a series of often-violent demonstrations that pitted rowdy protesters with police and ravaged Paris and other cities.

The crisis forced Macron to make policy concessions and delay the next wave of reforms, including overhauling the pension and unemployment systems.

-AAP