Millions on street after Paris attack
Unity march in Paris attracts 1.5-1.8million - with a similar number taking part elsewhere in France
AN ESTIMATED 3.7million people took to the streets of France this weekend in unity marches following last week's jihadist attacks in the Paris region, including the massacre at the headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Turnout at the biggest march, on Sunday afternoon in Paris, was described as "unprecedented" by the French interior ministry.
Crowds were so large than an official figure is impossible to reach - but police believe it lies between 1.5 and 1.8 million people.
Photo: Yann Caradec/Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons.
That makes it the largest turnout in modern French history - beating the 1.5 million who celebrated France's 1998 football World Cup win on the Champs-Elysées, and the million-plus who took to the streets following the liberation of Paris in 1944.
A Paris, "capitale du monde", une marche pour l’Histoire contre le terrorisme http://t.co/arKUd4P5Ef #AFP pic.twitter.com/noRrOkXFTC— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) 11 Janvier 2015
Forty world leaders took part in the demonstration, including British PM David Cameron, German chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Most of the French political parties (except the Front National) were represented, as well as major unions, human rights charities and religious groups.
The leaders observed a minute's silence before the march began.
About 2,000 police officers and 1,350 soldiers - including marksmen on rooftops - were deployed in the capital to protect marchers.
It was the first time since 1990 that a serving French president took part in a demonstration. The last time saw François Mitterrand join a protest against anti-Semitism following a vandalism attack on Jewish graves.
Elsewhere in France, up to 1.5 million people took part in similar marches in towns and cities on Saturday and Sunday. Among the biggest were in Lyon (300,000), Marseille (45,000), Saint-Etienne (60,000), Bordeaux (140,000), Perpignan (40,000) and Strasbourg (40,000).
The millions of marchers in France were joined in solidarity by many thousands more in London, Washington, Montreal and Berlin.
Le Vieux-Port et la grande roue. #Marseille pic.twitter.com/S2ot49GVt3— Mickael Penverne (@MickaelPenverne) 11 Janvier 2015
Meanwhile, the far-right Front National (FN) held a demonstration, after its leader Marine Le Pen was not invited to the main unity rally in Paris.
Ms Le Pen led a demonstration in the FN-controlled town of Beaucaire after denouncing what she called the “exclusion” of her party from the Paris march.
She claimed that she and her supporters had been shunned - even though President Francois Hollande had invited “all citizens” to participate.
