King Charles has cancelled a planned state visit to France as protests rage against planned pension reforms.

More than a million people took to the streets on Thursday after president Emmanuel Macron pushed through plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote in parliament.

A general strike was called by unions with at least 1.1m people taking part in demonstrations, a figure unions put at 3.5m.

Organisers had planned new protests for next week, when King Charles was due to make a state visit to France, which would have included a dinner at Versailles.

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However, in light of the planned day of action the decision has been maken to postpone the monarch's visit.

In a statement, the Elysee said: “In light of yesterday’s announcement of a new national day of action against pension reforms on Tuesday, March 28, in France, the visit of King Charles III, originally scheduled for March 26 to 29 in our country, will be postponed.

“This decision was taken by the French and British governments after a telephone exchange between the President of the Republic and the King this morning, in order to be able to welcome His Majesty King Charles III in conditions that correspond to our friendly relationship.

“This state visit will be rescheduled as soon as possible.”

Buckingham Palace also confirmed the postponement in a statement: “The King and The Queen Consort’s state visit to France has been postponed.

“Their Majesties greatly look forward to the opportunity to visit France as soon as dates can be found.”

A visit to Germany is expected to proceed as planned.