France is facing a second day of disruption as one of the striking unions decided to prolong its work stoppage in protest over pensions.
Unions called the 24-hour strike from late on Wednesday in an attempt to force concessions from the government, which plans to scrap privileges that allow a minority of public sector workers to retire as early as 50 or 55 years old.
Rail operator SNCF said 73.5 per cent of workers joined the strike and only a fraction of trains were running.
SNCF warned that services would be "very disrupted" this morning and could affect the rugby World Cup third place play-off, where France plays Argentina, ahead of tomorrow's final between South Africa and England.
Striking gas and power utility staff, who would also be subject to the new pension rules, cut almost 16 percent of production capacity at nuclear plants from Wednesday night, the CGT union said on Thursday.