The mortality rate for the coronavirus is currently thought to be less than 5 per cent, whereas it was double that for SARS.

Macron called this week for “calm and clarity” and promised a better explanation of what the changes will mean for different French workers.

It appears the child, not warmly dressed, climbed into the underbelly of the plane in Ivory Coast before it took off Tuesday evening.

The French general overseeing the reconstruction of fire-devastated Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is not saved yet because there's still a risk its vaulted ceilings might collapse.

They said their investigations now justify a probe into ``murder and attempted murder in relation to a terrorist undertaking.''

French Interior Ministry officials and many police were on the scene in the southern suburbs of Paris.

So packed was one Paris bus one evening that an elderly man with a cane fell out when the doors opened at a stop.

Images on French media and social media showed activists jumping and chanting and waving union flags as they moved through the subway station.

The Notre Dame fire in April spewed dozens of tons of toxic lead-dust into the atmosphere in just a few hours.

French trade unions crippled transport, shut schools and brought demonstrators into the streets on Tuesday in a redoubled effort to force President Emmanuel Macron to ditch a planned pension reform by Christmas.