Around 40,000 police and gendarmes -- along with elite Raid and GIGN units -- were deployed in several cities overnight, with curfews issued in municipalities around Paris and bans on public gatherings instated in Lille and Tourcoing in the country's north.

Despite the massive security deployment, violence and damage were reported in multiple areas.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 667 people had been arrested in what he described as a night of "rare violence", while 249 police officers were injured, none of them seriously.

Police sources said that rather than pitched battles between protesters and police, the night was marked by pillaging of shops, reportedly including flagship branches of Nike and Zara in Paris.