Police have arrested at least 1,800 people across France after violent clashes and looting during nationwide protests PARIS -- Police arrested at least 1,800 people across France after violent groups clashed with officers and looted shops during nationwide demonstrations that drew hundreds of thousands protesting rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. President Emmanuel Macron was due to hold an emergency meeting with senior government officials on Sunday before addressing the nation at 8 p.m., his office said. Masked groups set fires and attacked public buildings, including city halls, in several cities on Saturday, authorities said.
In the central city of Limoges, flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building. Hundreds of protesters gathered again Sunday at the Place de la République in Paris amid a heavy police presence. Officers used tear gas as tensions flared sporadically.
Deliberately and collectively sowing disorder through violence is not,” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez wrote on X, citing the looting of hundreds of businesses in cities including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux. About 550,000 people took part in protests across France, according to authorities, while organizers put the figure at about 800,000. Demonstrators answered calls from a labor union, student organizations and activists hoping to revive the “yellow vest” movement, which emerged in 2018 to protest social injustice.
Mass protests in France are often marred by violence on the fringes of otherwise peaceful marches, leading to clashes with police. The arrest tally reported Sunday approached the nearly 2,000 recorded nationwide during a single day of yellow vest protests in December 2018. One person died of a heart attack, Paris police said in a statement, without providing details.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it was investigating. Dislodged cobblestones, shattered storefronts and broken glass littered the area around Paris’ Place de la République on Sunday. Looting and damage were also reported in other tourist and shopping districts.
Paris police said 855 people were arrested in the capital region. The city's prosecutor’s office said 557 remained in police custody. Parisians inspecting the damage photographed the partially dismantled base of the square’s central monument, a statue of Marianne, a symbol of France.
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