Iran and Russia have been exploiting the riots in France in an attempt to weaken the west, researchers have claimed.

A series of peaceful protests over the cost-of-living and education descended into violence over the weekend, with clashes between protesters and police, vandalism and shop looting spreading across towns and cities throughout the country.

Experts and police sources have suggested that the mobilisation of protesters on 17 October was stirred up online by accounts backed by foreign agitators.

“Police and territorial intelligence sources say the mobilisation of the troublemakers was stirred up, accentuated and instrumentalised by bloggers and influencers backed or made viral by foreign powers. Iran, Russia and Algeria are cited,” state radio France Culture reported, according to The Times.

Tehran has denied sowing disinformation and accused France of “violent treatment” of protesters and “extensive and flagrant human rights violations”, despite facing its own allegations of the same. It has advised its citizens against travel to France, Belgium and Italy amid the unrest.

The claims come after Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto said that a similar weekend of rioting in Milan was caused by a “hybrid war” being waged against the West – and that the protests were “fundamentally different from those seen in other eras”.

Before Saturday’s violence, as unrest was simmering, France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot had claimed that the “forces seeking to undermine democracy now dominate the information landscape, where they employ tactics designed to polarise public debate”, claiming that foreign agitators were seeking to destabilise the country ahead of next year’s presidential election.

“The lycée demonstrations in France have been exploited by hostile narratives coming from Russia, China, Iran and the Maga community,” he added.

La Lettre previously reported that Mr Barrot had received a report on Iran’s “disinformation actions and cyberattacks” from the General Secretariat of Defence and National Security.

Journalist Emmanuel Razavi, who is French-Iranian, told The Times that Iranian secret services don’t “start social movements” but will “meddle in the movement if they think it services their agenda”, claiming that agents of Tehran have linked themselves to hard-left groups.

He even claimed that unemployed youths were likely paid by Iranian agents of causing chaos in Paris – although there has not been publicised evidence to substantiate this claim. “They don’t pay them very much — only a few hundred euros,” he told the outlet, adding that this was just a small minority of those involved.

Professor of history at Sciences Po, David Colon , claimed Russia, Iran and Algeria were engaged in the “amplification and exacerbation of the tensions”, claiming that Iran had been successful in ultra-left groups.

Prof Colon added that he suspects Russia had placed agents on the ground on Saturday to exploit violence, claiming: “I cannot formally guarantee that Russian agents were present but I would be very surprised if Russian intelligence did not seize the opportunity of this demonstration which had been announced a long time in advance.”

He added that Saturday was an “enormous success” for the totalitarian regimes, adding: “I don’t say they provoked it but they instrumentalised and exploited it.”