(16 Jun 2020) French police fired tear gas at lingerers in an effort to clear the Place des Invalides at the end of a protest march by thousands of hospital workers.
Their demonstration for better pay and more investment in the country's public hospital system degenerated after angry mobs of hooded individuals, many wearing gasmasks, threw paving stones at police who had taken position along a street adjacent to Invalides golden-dome monument.
Although French hospitals are considered to be among the world's best, they struggled to handle a rush of COVID-19 patients after years of cost cuts.
France has reported nearly 30,000 virus-related deaths, the fifth-highest death toll worldwide, and treated more than 100,000 virus patients in hospitals since the beginning of the pandemic.
Hospital union activists who led the march denounced the violence.
Peaceful protests were held in the southern city of Marseille and other sites around France.
As the virus raced across France in March and saturated several hospitals, Macron deployed the armed forces to build the country's first peacetime field hospital and to move patients and doctors around in military transport jets and specially fitted high-speed trains.
The issue of stretched hospitals predates the virus crisis.
Emergency room workers held strikes and protests for months last year demanding more hiring and funding after years of job losses.
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