Passengers abandon cars as protesters shut French airport

A French airport was blockaded for more than five hours today as nationwide protests against Nicolas Sarkozy's government intensified.

Students threatened to storm the country's Senate, the upper house of Parliament which will rubber-stamp a Bill, possibly in the early hours of tomorrow, raising the retirement age from 60 to 62.

Thousands of trade unionists threatened flights arriving in and out of Marseille, one of the main airports in the south.

Access roads were closed by cars and lorries belonging to demonstrators, many of whom waved the flag of the major CGT union. Passengers abandoned their cars and carried their luggage to the terminal.

"We're stopping all vehicles getting through — nothing is moving and arriving passengers are having to carry their own luggage off planes," said Françoise Dufour, a CGT activist manning a picket line. It was only when armed riot police threatened to storm the union lines at around 8am that the blockade was finally lifted. There were similar scenes at Paris's Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, where up to half of flights were cancelled.

Lady Gaga cancelled two Paris concerts. Her website said "there is no certainty the trucks can make it" to the shows.

Police have been used to clear the blockades at oil depots but fuel supplies are running dangerously low. About 3,000 of the country's 12,000 petrol stations have run dry.

Interior minister Brice Hortefeux today criticised "certain people who take pieces of our territory for battlefields". He said 1,901 people have been arrested since early last week.

With industry chiefs saying that the dispute was costing the country about £100 million a day, fighting between police and university and secondary school students continued.

The eastern city of Lyon has been like an "urban guerrilla war zone" all this week so far, said a local police spokesman. Tear gas has been used on youths who have been setting fire to cars and smashing shop windows.

There have also been clashes in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where students today planned to join thousands of others for a mass demonstration.

"We will head for the Senate and, if necessary try to storm it," said a student leader who asked not to be named. "The government has pushed us to the brink and has threatened our entire future."

Most of the students will not be directly affected by the pension reform for many years but they fear that later retirement means fewer jobs in the short term. Leshmi Taguelmint said in Marseille: "We will continue our action. For the time being we have the whole population behind us and we will continue."