A retired surgeon accused of raping and sexually assaulting hundreds of young patients, some while they were under anesthetic, told the opening of his trial in western France on Monday that he had committed "despicable" acts.

A former surgeon went on trial in France on Monday for the alleged rape or sexual abuse of 299 victims, most of them children who were his patients, in what investigators and his own notebooks describe as a pattern of violence spanning over three decades.

A French former surgeon accused of abusing hundreds of patients, most of them children, has told a court that he admits to having "committed despicable acts" and "understands and shares the suffering" caused to his alleged victims.

Three explosive devices were thrown against the wall of the Russian consulate in the French city of Marseille with two exploding, police said on Monday. Nobody was injured in the incident, which occurred on the third anniversary of the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.