Clashes broke out between the police and protesters in cities across France on Saturday as tens of thousands of people took to the streets in some of the country’s most violent protests in years over rising costs and declining public services.Some 272 people had been arrested by mid-afternoon after violent incidents involving hooded individuals, including in Paris, Marseille in the south, Rennes in the northwest, Toulouse in the southwest and Angers in the west, the Interior Ministry said.In east-central France’s Lyon, protesters set ablaze the tourism office.The protests began last month at high schools in Paris’ poor northern suburbs, where anger over teacher shortages and shabby facilities evolved into a broader movement focused on inequality, public spending and living standards.“We are fighting because the cost of living is too harsh, because the price of fuel is too high, because high school pupils are being violently attacked and hurt all over the country just for trying to protest and ask for more teachers and decent learning conditions,” said Lola, a 19-year-old protester in Paris.