GB News reporter Dougie Beattie was caught in the middle of violent riots in Paris, where tear gas grenades left him and his cameraman choking as they reported live from the frontline.
Beattie, wearing protective goggles, told the camera: "This is really getting to the front line of stuff now. So far there have been many, many arrests here." He was reporting alongside riot police as demonstrators clashed with officers on the streets of the French capital.
Arrests and clashes
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed that nearly 1,000 arrests had been made nationwide, with the total expected to climb higher. As officers donned gas masks and fired another tear gas canister at the demonstrators, Beattie continued: "Many people have been taken out injured. This is going to get quite violent in the next few hours here. There are fireworks, bricks and bottles now coming in at the police on their line."
The reporter was thrown off balance as rioters scattered in every direction, colliding with him and his cameraman, who kept filming throughout. Tear gas drifted behind him as he confessed: "I can tell you the air is absolutely thick. This is really choking us and getting in our eyes. We will be leaving this area very, very shortly."
Nationwide protests
The French interior ministry estimates that 410,000 people joined protests across the nation, with roughly 110,000 of those demonstrators in Paris. Officers unleashed tear gas in cities such as Lyon and Marseille, while several of France's tourist hotspots and metro stations shut down ahead of the demonstrations.
In Grenoble, southeastern France, hundreds of masked people carried out acts of vandalism and attacked police "with mortars and projectiles", according to officials.
