Hundreds of thousands of protestors marched across France on Thursday against President Emmanuel Macron government’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

The turnout in the ongoing protests fell during the final day of protests before a key court decision on the legislation. However, violent clashes between police and protesters were reported in western France, AFP reported.

The demonstrators in Paris also stormed the headquarters of the French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton and Moët.

“If Macron wants to find money to finance the pension system, he should come here to find it,” Fabien Villedieu, a union leader outside the LVMH building said, according to CNN.

Videos showed protestors holding flares storming into the headquarters of the luxury goods and forcing their way inside. The protestors were seen inside the LVMH building while police sirens glared in the background.

The attack against the luxury brand comes on a day when shares of the company jumped to a record high. Thursday’s protests marked the 12th day of nationwide agitation since they began in January this year.

The protest march in the French capital also passed by the Constitutional Council’s headquarters, opposite the Louvre museum in central Paris, which was protected by a phalanx of anti-riot police in body armour brandishing shields.

The report said that the protestors engaged in intense scuffles with police and resorted to smoke bombs, projectiles and tear gas. Violence was also reported at Paris’ Place de la Bastille as riot police clashed with angry protestors.

The interior ministry said 380,000 people took part in rallies nationwide, far fewer than the nearly 1.3 million who demonstrated in March at the height of the protests against the reforms, which include raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.

But the movement is “far from over", the head of the CFDT union Laurent Berger said and added there will be major protests on the May 1 labour day.

The CGT has called for new strikes by refinery workers and rubbish collectors, whose walkout left the streets of Paris heaving with trash for three weeks in March.

Image Source: The National