Chaos erupted when riot police forcibly charged so-called black-bloc activists at a pension reform protest in Paris on Saturday 11 March.

The cops rained baton blows down on the black-clad protesters, who they threw to the ground and then dragged away.

They were responding, violently, to projectiles being thrown at them just before the charge.

A black bloc is a tactic in which protesters typically wear black clothing, face coverings and padding or body armour, sometimes including helmets, to protect themselves from riot police and hinder identification.

The latest pension protest followed a vote in France’s senate that approved President Macron's unpopular pension reforms, that will raise the pension age from 62 -- among the lowest in Europe -- to 64.

The reform plans are not yet law, with a committee now set to draw up a draft to be will be voted on in the senate and national assembly.

After receiving a rain of projectiles, the forces of order retaliated violently by bludgeoning the black blocks and by proceeding to interpellations.