Around 10pm, police arrived and confiscated cardboard boxes, posters and canvas sheets used by the group, which numbered about 100.

“The security force intervention was aimed at clearing the area of cardboard boxes and furniture placed here by the Indignants, but not to evacuate or arrest anyone,” an official source told AFP.

Officials said there were no incidents.

But the Indignants called the action “violent”, and said in a statement authorities had taken protesters’ food and medicines.

“This police harassment does nothing but reinforce the legitimacy of this occupation by citizens determined to take up their responsibilities and show resistance in a non-violent way to the state, which employs fascist methods not compatible with a democracy.”

The group installed itself at La Defense during the G20 summit in Cannes on November 4th — part of a global movement of protest inspired by the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations against corporate greed and Washington gridlock.