Demonstrators in central Paris were charged and sprayed with teargas after President Emmanuel Macron was re-elected on Sunday, according to footage posted on social media.

Images on Twitter showed police attempting to disperse a mob of primarily young people who had congregated in the downtown Chatelet district to protest.

Macron won a second five-year term after defeating far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a runoff voting earlier on Sunday, averting a dramatic electoral upset.

Although Macron won by a comfortable margin, the abstention rate was expected to settle at the highest since 1969, with a substantial chunk of voters unwilling to vote for either Macron or Le Pen.

Between the first round of voting and Sunday’s runoff, students protested outside the Sorbonne in Paris and other universities, expressing their disillusionment with the choice on offer.