Fresh clashes broke out in Paris on Sunday a day after France suffered one of its worst days of unrest in years.

Police again fired tear gas towards protesters at Place de la Republique and bikes were set on fire on Sunday afternoon, a sign that tensions had not fully subsided in the capital.

Protests over high prices left one demonstrator dead, thousands arrested and shops across the country looted or damaged on Saturday.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who joined the Paris march, accused prime minister Sébastien Lecornu of “playing with fire” and alleging that “by banking on degradation, you have only succeeded in uniting all youths and workers’ unions.”

Mr Mélenchon insisted that “my message is clear: those who share our fight have no business in looting or destruction.”

In his last few months as president of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron looks more than ever a man who lost control of events, lost touch with the nation he leads, and lost the confidence of international investors with it.

Rather than through, say, a television interview or a speech delivered in person, President Macron, so inappropriately aloof, chose initially to react to the protests that have broken out across France over the weekend, sparking disorder, violence and hundreds of arrests in a rather terse statement on X: “Those who took part in the vandalism, attacked prefectures and stores, and engaged in looting, including in city hall buildings, will be brought to justice and will be punished.”

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Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire announced the creation of an emergency unit to support businesses assess the damage.

“The scale of the damage is considerable and unprecedented,” Mr Grégoire wrote in an open letter.

“Paris is a city of freedoms, debate and demonstrations. It must remain so. But it must also be a city where everyone can work and run a business safely.”

Police said groups of hundreds of people formed unauthorized marches across central Paris on Saturday.

“By late afternoon, a new phase began with the arrival of large numbers of people whose sole aim was to steal and loot, taking advantage of the unrest,” police said.

In Marseille, 107 police officers were injured including three “seriously”, according to one of the area’s prefects.

“Alongside the acts of looting and violence witnessed by the city of Marseille today, 107 police officers were injured, three of them very seriously,” Jacques Witkowski, the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône, said according to Le Parisien.

He added: “I respectfully thank the law enforcement officers who were mobilized on the front lines throughout the day and who are still holding on. I wish a speedy recovery to the injured men and women.”

A tow hall in the central French city of Limoges has collapsed after it was set on fire on Saturday.

Dramatic footage shows the moment the historic building’s roof caved in as it was engulfed in flames.

“The roof has collapsed onto the lower floors, except in the west wing, and two-thirds of the facade have already disappeared,” state representative Maurice Barate said according to Le Parisian.

Mr Barate described it as a “heritage catastrophe” and a “deliberate act by vandals.”

Local authorities have advised residents to avoid the area for safety reasons.

Elsewhere, police in Albania said that 388 people had been charged with criminal offences as widespread protests take place in the capital Tirana.

Prime minister Edi Rama on Sunday rejected calls to step down from growing street protests, and said they were ⁠a threat not to his government but to Albania’s progress toward joining the European Union.

Student-led demonstrations, fuelled by anger over perceived government corruption, a lack of jobs and poor education standards, have engulfed central Tirana and spread to other cities in the past week.

Demonstrators demanding Rama’s resignation have ⁠set fire to government buildings as well as ​banks ⁠and pulled up paving stones to throw at police, who have responded with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.

The unrest, which followed months of largely ⁠peaceful protests in the summer against a luxury coastal development backed by US President Donald ​Trump’s ⁠son-in-law Jared Kushner, pose the biggest challenge ‌yet to Rama, who has governed since 2013 and last year won a fourth term in office.

“I am not being challenged, the government is not being challenged, a ‌government majority or a winning party in the elections ‌is not being challenged but a path is being challenged, a mission is being challenged,” Rama said in a live address on Facebook.