Riot police patrol French rail stations

POLICE in riot gear have been patrolling platforms in France as crippling rail strikes send tensions soaring.

Thousands of officers have been deployed at stations across the country, mainly to prevent violence by militant trade unionists.

With 86 per cent of trains cancelled, desperate commuters have been seen climbing in through carriage windows because the doors are blocked by crowds.

One video showed a father on a suburban commuter route in Paris passing his crying child through a window to another passenger before climbing in himself.

Yesterday was the second day of the worst industrial strife since Emmanuel Macron was elected president last year.

Holidaymakers caught up in the chaos include Britons returning from the Easter weekend – with many Eurostar services cancelled. Alain Krakovitch, director general of the Transilien suburban network covering Paris, said the strikes were costing France the equivalent of between £8.7million and £17.5million a day.

Paris police were also called in to maintain public order on replacement buses.

Staff at state- owned rail firm SNCF walked out at 7am on Tuesday, triggering the biggest challenge yet to president Macron’s employment reforms. He wants to smash the powerful unions which have negotiated pay and conditions that make French rail workers among the most pampered in Europe.

The showdown is being likened to Margaret Thatcher’s confrontations with British trade unions, especially miners, in the 1980s.

Opponents have accused the French government of wanting to privatise the loss-making SNCF. But transport secretary Elisabeth Borne said: ‘SNCF is a public service, and will remain a public service.’