PARIS - MORE than two million people thronged the streets of the French capital overnight on Saturday for a 'White Night' of musical and cultural events, officials said.

US rocker Patti Smith was a top draw at the seventh edition of Paris' 'Nuit Blanche", which also featured a light and sound show by Japan's Ryoji Ikeda in front of the Montparnasse skyscraper.

Long lines of people snaked outside the Saint-Germain de Pres church to catch Smith's performance, a 'meeting of the pagan and religious", in the words of Paris's top culture official Christophe Girard.

He said turnout was estimated to be about 50 per cent higher than last year, when 1.5 million turned out for the round-the-clock festivities.

Other events this year included a showing of a film by Bollywood director Shaad Ali at the Gare de Lyon, with parka-clad Indian dancers staging some of complex scenes in the train station. -- AFP