Thousands of French secondary school students took to the streets yesterday to protest against government education reform plans and some clashed with police in Paris and the southeastern city of Lyon.

Mindful of the riots that have hit Athens as well as student protests in Paris in 2006, President Nicolas Sarkozy has already postponed plans to reform the secondary school curriculum after sometimes violent protests this month.

Students have kept up demonstrations to demand the plan be dropped permanently. Yesterday, several thousands took part in protests in the Paris region and provincial cities including Lyon and Rennes in western France.

In Lyon, students threw stones at police, a car was overturned near the city's education headquarters and one school had to be evacuated after smoke from fires lit in nearby rubbish bins spread through the buildings, a Reuters reporter said.

Police used tear gas to break up the demonstrations and made around 40 arrests, a spokesman said.

In Paris, police used tear gas after brief clashes on the margins of a demonstration in the old student quarter near the Luxembourg Gardens, where organisers said about 13,600 took part.

Paris education authorities said about 40 so-called professional and general lycees out of a total of 105 in Paris were disrupted and the UNL students' union said pupils from 60 schools in the region around Paris took part.

"There are barriers set up filtering people going in and out, some lessons have been cancelled. It's quite a big movement," a spokesman for the Paris education authority said.

"The atmosphere is quite tense and there have been some incidents between blockaders and non-blockaders," she said.

Prime Minister François Fillon said the government was prepared to consider some changes but he said there was no question of burying the project, aimed at making the creaking state school system more effective.

"We have decided to take more time with schools because there have been widespread misperceptions," he told Europe 1 radio.

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