Paris rally marred by clashes 6 days before election
At least three officers were hurt in clashes between riot police and masked youths during a May 1 march in Paris on Monday that carried extra significance six days before the presidential election run-off.
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"Masked individuals threw objects and Molotov cocktails at police" who responded by firing teargas, authorities said.
The violence erupted near Place de la Bastille in the French capital as the march led by three unions including France's biggest, the CGT, headed for another square nearby.
At one point, a blazing shopping trolley packed with flammable material was pushed towards police lines, an AFP photographer saw.
The rivals for the presidency, centrist frontrunner Emmanuel Macron and far-right rival Marine Le Pen, faced shows of opposition to their programmes during the fractious May 1 workers' marches.
Police said officers used tear gas against protesters who had injured three of their number by throwing petrol bombs.
The bitterly contested election has polarized France, exposing some of the same sense of anger with globalization and political elites that brought Donald Trump to presidential power in the United States, and caused Britons to vote for a divorce from the EU.
The vote in the world's fifth largest economy, a key member of the NATO defense alliance, will be the first to elect a president who is from neither of the main political groupings: the candidates of the Socialists and conservative party The Republicans were knocked out in the first round on April 23.
Between them Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron gathered only 45 percent of votes in that round, which eliminated nine other candidates.
The second round will take place in the middle of a weekend extended by a public holiday. A high abstention rate could favor Le Pen, whose supporters typically tell pollsters they are staunchly committed to their candidate.
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