Chaos in France as police fire tear gas at protesters and baton-charge crowds

There has been fresh chaos across France today with protestors clashing with police, as over a million people demonstrated against the controversial pension reforms pushed through parliament last week.

As nationwide demonstrations enter their ninth night, striking images showed huge blazes erupting in the western city of Bordeaux.

In Paris, police fired teargas and baton-charged crowds on the Grands Boulevards thoroughfare in Paris, while some protestors were seen throwing rocks and even shooting fireworks at police.

Fires were lit and have been blazing into the night, with pallets and piles of uncollected rubbish set ablaze, leading firefighters and even local residents to intervene.

Unions claimed 800,000 people marched in the French capital, and a record 3.5 million across the country.

But official estimates say the true number is a fraction of that – that some 1.089 million protesters took part in demonstrations across the country, the interior ministry said.

They put the Paris turnout at 119,000, the highest for the capital since the movement started in January.

The nationwide figure still fell short of the 1.28 million people who marched on March 7, according to the government figures.

Source of data and images: dailymail