gendarmerie

"Tensions between groups broke out, requiring the intervention of the police and the gendarmerie," Vienne regional police said in a statement.

The attackers struck a gendarmerie school near the city's airport but the situation was now "under control", the channel reported.

I was recently shown footage by police at a local gendarmerie of what looked like another pitched battle on a beach at dawn, with riot-shielded police defending themselves against a hail of rocks.

Four mobile gendarmerie squadrons are being deployed as reinforcements, including 15 gendarmes from an elite intervention unit.

Alex Batty appeared to be keen to be taken to an embassy in a big French city, but the student decided to contact the gendarmerie, the French military police.