Cantona calls for run on banks

As students and public sector workers across Europe prepare for a winter of protests, they have been offered advice from football rebel Eric Cantona.

Speaking to Presse Ocean in Nantes, Cantona dismissed protesters who take to the streets with placards and banners as passe.

"The revolution is really easy to do these days. What's the system? The system is built on the power of the banks. So it must be destroyed through the banks."

Nearly 40,000 people have clicked on the YouTube clip, and a French-based movement - StopBanque - has taken up the campaign for a huge co-ordinated withdrawal of money from banks on December 7.

It is claimed that more than 14,000 people are already committed to removing deposits.

Valerie Ohannesian, of the French Banking Federation, said she thought the appeal "stupid in every sense" and a charter for thieves and money-launderers.