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Clashes have erupted between strikers and police in nationwide demonstrations that have gripped France for weeks.

Officers have fired tear gas, and riot police officers have been deployed to face off thousands of demonstrators during a one-day strike.

Firefighters have been forced to extinguish blazes across the country, and confrontations have unfolded in Paris and Lyon, as at least 600,000 took to the streets.

The protests follow demonstrations over living costs, public services and education that have triggered the worst civil unrest France has seen in years.

Education minister Edouard Geffray condemned the “criminal behaviour” after people threw fireworks that started a large fire at a high school near the city of Toulouse in the southwest on Thursday morning.

High school students and other demonstrators had earlier faced off against riot police in Paris as they blocked a street with rubbish bins.

While the demonstrations in Lyon and other cities, including Marseille and Nantes, began in the morning, the main protest march in Paris set off in the afternoon from Place de la République.

Several high-profile politicians attended the protests, including presidential candidates Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Raphael Glucksmann.

The Interior Ministry said 600,000 people had participated in protests around the country, while the CGT union, one of the organisers, said 1.6 million had taken part.

In Paris, the mood was festive at the start, with a diverse group ​of ⁠participants singing “La Marseillaise” and some carnival-like floats.

The one-day strike, which some energy workers and teachers joined, shut the Eiffel Tower, but there were no major disruptions to transport.

However, about two hours in, some of the people at the front of the march clashed with police, who fired tear gas.

Paris police said some hooded individuals committed acts of vandalism, which police responded to immediately in order to stop and isolate them.

Clashes also broke out between some demonstrators and police as ​the protest wound ⁠down, with authorities forced to extinguish at least one small fire ‌on the sidelines of the event.

In Lyon, riot police fired tear gas and charged a group of protesters, some of whom were seen shouting anti-police ‌slogans and dressed all in black, with face coverings.

The interior ministry said the police there had been ‌confronted by several hundred protesters and that the violence had been contained although tensions remained high.

The unrest comes five months before a presidential election that president Emmanuel Macron cannot run in. It puts pressure on prime minister Sebastien Lecornu ahead of his meeting with workers’ and employers’ groups on Monday about the cost of living and salaries.

It could pit far-right candidate Marine Le Pen against hard-left rival Melenchon in a second-round run-off.

“There is a lot of concern about the future, notably the issues of salaries, public services,” said Alice Martinovic, an 18-year-old student participating in the Paris demonstration.

“I hope in the upcoming elections the candidates will really think about this movement and include the opinions of young people, of students, who are now joined by a lot of other workers.”

Riots on 17 October caught security forces off guard, leaving damaged shops and public buildings across the country and fuelling criticism of Macron’s handling of the crisis. French authorities have since issued curfews, bans on large gatherings and have ‌required groups to take alternate routes for demonstrations that avoided main boulevards, which trade unions have decried.

“The government tried to block the demonstrations. The demonstrations are bigger than ever,” Sophie Binet, head of the CGT trade union, told reporters. “High school students, pensioners, students, workers, all together. Unity wins,” read one banner at ‌the protest in Lyon.

“Our pay has not kept ⁠up with inflation,” said Mehdi Dumontroty, a 45-year-old firefighter who was joining the protest in Paris.

“What happened this summer proves that we were right when we `said we needed more resources to deal with the crisis that we faced,” he said, referring to wildfires exacerbated earlier this year by intense heat waves.

Around 70,000 police were on duty nationwide, a comparable figure to recent weekends. ‌The French government has defended police tactics while saying ​any abuses would be investigated.

The strike contributed to a reduction in France’s nuclear output early on Thursday and the Education Ministry said just over 15 per cent of French teaching staff had joined the strike.