The government has already postponed plans to reform the secondary school curriculum after sometimes violent protests this month but students have kept up demonstrations to demand the plan be dropped permanently.

On Thursday, several thousand took part in protests in the Paris region and provincial cities including Lyon and Rennes in western France.

In Lyon, students threw stones at police, a car was overturned near the city’s education headquarters and one school had to be evacuated after smoke from fires lit in nearby rubbish bins spread through the buildings, a Reuters reporter said.