[Anchor]

The wave of protests that began in France has now entered its second month. Clashes have intensified, with Molotov Cocktails being thrown, while protests in Germany have also been marred by looting.

For SBS News, this is correspondent Kwon Yeongin reporting from Paris.

[Reporter]

Flames catch on the leg of a police officer deployed to suppress the protests.

Even a bystander participating in the demonstration rushes in to extinguish the fire with bare hands.

On Saturday, local time, clashes broke out across France during demonstrations demanding improvements to the education environment and solutions to economic hardship.

The rally, which started in the suburbs of Paris, began peacefully.

[Joséphine / Protest Participant: The government is not responding to our demands. They are implementing measures just to buy time. In the end, they are failing to properly address our requests.]

The atmosphere changed drastically when a group of radical protesters, who had been waiting at the end of the march route, joined in.

When protesters refused to disperse, police attempted to force them to scatter by firing tear gas.

Radical protesters hurled broken sidewalk blocks and curbs, and for the first time in these protests, even Molotov cocktails appeared.

One police officer suffered second-degree burns, and 565 protesters were arrested on the spot across France.

Here, where fierce clashes took place between police and protesters, stones and tear gas canisters are scattered all over as you can see, and trash cans are burning.

In city centers where nighttime protests are banned, sporadic disturbances continued under the cover of Halloween.

French police stated that 320,000 people participated in the demonstrations nationwide, a smaller turnout compared to the weekend rallies over the past two weeks that drew over 400,000 people.

In Germany as well, youth protests demanding opposition to conscription and other issues took place nationwide for the first time since the outbreak of the French protests.

Clashes broke out in various locations, and some shops in Frankfurt suffered looting damage.

With French students scheduled to resume school blockades on Tuesday this week following the end of their two-week autumn break, protests across Europe, including in Spain and Italy, show little sign of subsiding.

(Camera of the report: Kim Si-nae, Video Editing: Won Hyeong-hee)