, Sept. 10 -- Protesters blocked roads, set fires and clashed with police in Paris and other French cities on Wednesday, piling pressure on President Emmanuel Macron and testing new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on his first day in office.

France's Interior Ministry said 250 people were arrested in the early hours of the nationwide demonstrations, called against budget cuts and other grievances.

Despite a massive deployment of 80,000 police, protesters created widespread disruptions. In Rennes, a bus was torched, while fire damage to electrical cables in the southwest halted one train line and disrupted another, authorities said.

The "Block Everything" movement, which spread online over the summer, urged citizens to strike, march an...