18.10.2026
France woke on Sunday to the wreckage of one of its most violent days of unrest in years after protests over high prices and public services left one demonstrator dead, hundreds of police injured and nearly 1,800 people arrested.
Nationwide demonstrations erupted into riots on Saturday, with a town hall torched, shops ransacked, and buildings covered in graffiti as violent groups clashed with police in cities across the country.
One protester died after suffering a cardiac arrest during demonstrations in Paris, where police made a record 855 arrests. Across France, more than 500 officers were injured, the interior minister said.
“It’s like a war zone here,” said Dutch entrepreneur Tije De Boer, who had come to Paris with his children to visit a friend and said the protests forced him to evacuate his hotel at Place de la Republique, which suffered major damage on Saturday.
More than half a million people joined marches in scores of cities, marking the convergence of a month-long student movement with broader social discontent against rising living costs and declining public services.
While hundreds of thousands protested peacefully, violent fringe groups targeted public buildings, looted luxury boutiques and supermarkets and attacked police vehicles and officers.
A massive clean-up operation began in cities from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south and Strasbourg in the east to Bordeaux in the southwest, where a masked mob invaded the residence of the local prefect.
Economy Minister Roland Lescure pledged support on Sunday for business owners who suffered losses. “Those who break things will pay, repair the damage and be held accountable for their intention to sow chaos,” Lescure said in a statement.
The protests began last month over school conditions and teacher shortages in working-class suburbs, before broadening into a movement against inequality, public spending cuts and the rising cost of living. Reuters