6 , 000 police and guards club their way through Paris mobs , women beaten . Four thousand police using fists and batons , and 2 , 000 mobile guards , wielding their carbines , clubbed their way through a mob gathered at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triumph in Paris . Men who grappled with the police were beaten to the ground and trampled on , and even women and children were attacked in the charge . The crowd was singing the ' marseillaise ' when the police made their attack . Photo shows , packked ranks of demonstrators singing and waving banners , marching down the Champs-?lys矇es from the Arc de Triumphe . 12 July 1936