French strikes slide towards chaos

French police fired tear gas at school pupils today after nationwide strike protests against raising the retirement age moved uncomfortably close to mass violence.

Several hundred youths hurled stones at officers and set a car on fire in the Paris suburb of Nanterre outside a school which was closed because of clashes yesterday.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and barricaded the area after the teenagers threw stones from a bridge. A school was burned to the ground in Le Mans, west of Paris.

Val d'Huisine College was reduced to cinders after its main gate was blocked by dustbins and shopping trolleys.

Hundreds of thousands of students were today preparing to join trade unionists and public sector workers, including train and bus drivers, teachers, hospital staff and gas and electricity workers in a mass show of strength.

It was the sixth national day of demonstrations since early last month against legislation which will raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.

Appealing for calm, justice minister Michele Alliot-Marie warned protesters that "the right to demonstrate does not mean the right to smash things up".

Airlines flying into France were ordered to slash schedules and the Parisian airport authority said the strike was causing "serious difficulties". About half the flights from Orly airport and 30 per cent from Charles de Gaulle were cancelled. Drivers formed long queues for petrol because of the rolling strike by oil refinery workers and picket lines at fuel depots. Oil tankers are anchored off the blockaded port of Marseille. France has had to import fuel, which has sent the wholesale price of unleaded petrol soaring.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is meeting German and Russian leaders in the northern seaside town of Deauville today, said he would not back down.

"The reform is essential and France is committed to it and will go ahead with it just as our German partners did," said Mr Sarkozy.

Germany voted in 2007 to lift its retirement age to 63 from 62 by 2029. French unions crushed pension and labour reforms in 1995 and 2006 with long-running protests.

In Marseille, 4,000 tonnes of rubbish has built up in the streets because of striking dustmen. Officials warned the waste will soon pose a serious health risk.

"If they the government continue, we won't have any choice but to continue," said Jorge Goncalves, a lorry driver with the CFDT union blocking the Nanterre depot. "Today the government is stubborn. And how do you deal with stubborn people? You don't let go."