King Charles’s state visit to Paris has been postponed amid mass strikes and protests, the French president’s office has said.
The king had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday.
Protesters angry at French President Emmanuel Macron are continuing scattered actions on Friday following mass demonstrations the previous day.
Over 450 protesters were arrested as some 300 demonstrations drew more than a million people nationwide to protest against unpopular pension reforms that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Earlier, mayor of Bordeux said, that King Charles III will not be at any risk during his trip.
Pierre Hurmic expressed shock and anger after the town hall’s historic entrance was set alight, amid French protests against raising the pension age.
The violence came days before the King is due in France on a state visit.
Mr Hurmic said details had been adapted “so the visit can go ahead under the best security conditions, so as not to expose the King to the slightest risk”.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin also said authorities were “extremely focused” on the trip.
He added France would be ready to welcome the King on his first state visit as monarch in “excellent conditions” and there were no “known threats”.
The trip was supposed to start on weekуnd, is due to include a ride along the Champs-Elysées in the heart of Paris and a banquet at Versailles with President Emmanuel Macron.
The ninth day of protests on Thursday attracted more than a million people, according to the French interior ministry, although the unions put the number at 3.5 million.
Some 300 marches went ahead peacefully, but some protests were marred by some of the worst scenes of violence since demonstrations began in January.
Mr Darmanin said 457 arrests were made across France and 441 members of the security forces were injured. There were also dozens of injuries among protesters hit by stun grenades fired by riot police in several cities. In Rouen, a woman was hit in the hand and lost her thumb.
Much of the violence took place on the sidelines of some of the marches, in Paris and other cities including Bordeaux, and the interior minister said 903 fires were lit on the streets of the capital alone.
One police officer who lost consciousness had to be dragged to safety after appearing to be struck on the head.
In Paris, generally peaceful demonstrations were disrupted by occasional clashes between police and masked rioters who smashed shop windows, attacked a McDonald’s restaurant and set a kiosk alight.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne tweeted: “Demonstrating and voicing disagreements is a right. The violence and degradation we have witnessed today is unacceptable. All my gratitude to the police and rescue forces mobilised.”
Protesters appeared galvanised by a TV interview given the day before by the president, after his government had used a constitutional power called 49:3 to force through the pension reform without a final vote in the National Assembly. Mr Macron said the reforms were an economic necessity, and he was prepared to accept the resulting unpopularity.
“I listened to Macron yesterday and it was as if someone was spitting in our face,” said Adèle, a 19-year-old law student in Nanterre. “For this pension reform, there is another way and if he doesn’t do that, it’s because he’s not listening to the people. There’s a clear lack of democracy,” she told the BBC.
“We will come out until he removes the pension reform,” warned firefighter Christophe Marin. “We were getting a little demotivated, but the announcement of the 49.3 mobilised the French people – and us too.”
The unrest also disrupted train travel and saw teachers and workers at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport walk out of work. Blockades of oil refineries and depots have begun to affect fuel supplies, and Le Figaro website said that by Thursday almost 15% of petrol stations had run out of either petrol or diesel.
Unions and the political left believe the latest day of strikes was a success, but where the situation goes from here is an open question.
President Macron was in Brussels for an EU summit as the protests unfolded. The government is hoping they will lose momentum, and that Thursday’s violence will put people off.
But the opposition says the protests will not dwindle, and Parisian refuse collectors, who started their strike against the pension reform on 6 March, have renewed it until next Monday.
For more than two weeks bins have been left overflowing in many districts in Paris, and the capital does not look its best ahead of King Charles’ trip.
Left-wing politicians have objected to the timing of the state visit, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon assessing it is “not the right moment”.
Green MP Sandrine Rousseau called for it to be cancelled, questioning the location of the royal banquet. “Is it really the priority to receive Charles III at Versailles? Surely not,” she said on Wednesday.
British royalty has often been feted by French leaders at the palace of Versailles since the Revolution in 1789.
Queen Victoria was welcomed there in 1855 and even waltzed with Napoleon III. George VI visited before World War Two and Elizabeth II paid her first visit as queen there in 1952.