PARIS ANTI-GAY PROTESTS TURN VIOLENT

Two days of angry protests against same-sex marriage in the French capital have seen violence breaking out between protesters and riot police.

Up to 150,000 people marched in Paris on Sunday against the recently passed law legalising gay marriage and adoption.

Many of the protesters focused on the issue of gay adoption, asserting that a child should have a mother and a father.

Around 4,500 police attempted to manage the huge crowds that included right wing hooligans who clashed with police and attacked journalists into the night.

“Traditional France has been threatened by these new measures and that’s why we have taken to the streets,” Jerome Martin, a 23-year-old protester, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

“The violence highlights the frustration we feel at having been betrayed by liberal politicians,” he said.

Almost 300 people were arrested in connection with the weekend’s rioting.

France became the 14th country to legalise same-sex marriage last week, despite a series of mass protests against the law over the last few months.

The controversial legislation has divided the French public, radicalised conservatives and led to a dramatic increase in homophobic hate crimes.

Tension was further heightened when French right wing writer Dominique Venner shot himself in Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday, apparently over his disgust with the legalisation of gay marriage.

The first gay marriage in France is set to take place this Wednesday in Montpellier.

Watch footage of the weekend riots in Paris below.