Protests and marches take place in French cities as police seek to prevent violence

Fox News correspondent Jonathan Hunt reported on Saturday that thousands of people had gathered in Paris, France, as the main protest march was underway in the French capital.

“It’s a protest, obviously initially, against education standards. The high school students were at the forefront of the protests. Now it’s become a much bigger protest against the cost of living, the problems in the French economy and the discontent, particularly among young people, but also the fears of older generations, pensions, etc., because the French economy is in big trouble,” Hunt told “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

“So that’s what we’re seeing right now. Which is so far, a peaceful march. Obviously the big concern here is what happened last week, on October 17, when we saw this kind of protest turn into violent riots in the last few hours, thousands of businesses all over France, not just in Paris, but in cities across France, were so badly damaged, there was so much looting,” continued Hunt.

“What no one wants is for this to happen again. The people, the groups that are leading these protests don’t want this to happen again. They know that their cause was hijacked by those who just wanted to commit acts of violence,” Hunt also said. “They’re hoping it doesn’t happen again today. But we’re still in the very early stages. Remember in these situations, it’s always late at night that this kind of activity tends to break out and you see the fires, you see the violence, you see the looting that we saw so much of last week.”