Paris is being shaken by a second night of violent protests against President Emmanuel Macron's controversial pension reforms.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told radio station RTL on Friday that 310 people were arrested overnight, most of them in Paris, after protests on Thursday.

Rioters clashed with police during demonstrations on Thursday night, with officers deploying a water cannon as thousands gathered at the Place de Concorde.

Protesters this evening congregated at the public square, with pictures emerging of them huddled around a fire with a cardboard effigy of the French President raised precariously above the flames to chants of 'Macron, Resign!' The cutout was later shown after it had been ignited. 

Reuters TV broadcast images of tear gas being used by police to deal with crowd disorder at the Place de Concorde this evening as tensions over the reforms reached melting point. A water cannon vehicle was also pictured. 

An AFP image shows water being sprayed onto a large wooden cable reel that had been torched in the public square. Construction equipment had been burned there for the second day in a row, according to reports.

Lines of riot police could also be seen blocking the path leading from the Place de la Concorde to the National Assembly, home to the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament.

French opposition lawmakers have filed a no confidence motion against Macron's government after the controversial bill to raise the retirement age was forced through parliament without a vote.

'The motion will allow us to get out on top of a deep political crisis', said Bertrand Pancher, the head of a left-wing independent parliamentary group that co-signed the motion.