Protesters block access to Louvre museum in Paris in support of demonstrations
Protests initially began last month with students protesting over conditions in lycées across the country but have escalated to cover a broader range of concerns such as the cost of living.
Protesters blocked entrances to the Louvre museum in Paris on Monday in support of a nationwide high school student protest movement and to denounce "police repression", the museum's management and unions told the AFP news agency.
The museum could not open as scheduled because of a protest led by students from the Ecole du Louvre, management said.
A leaflet displayed outside the museum read: "We are proud to announce that we are blocking the world's largest museum."
Nationwide, more than 2,330 people were taken into police custody over the weekend, 70% of whom were adults, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday.
More than 2,000 shops were expected to have been affected by the weekend's violence across France, with damage running into "hundreds of millions of euros", according to chamber of commerce president Alain Di Crescenzo.
Protests initially began last month with students protesting over conditions in lycées across the country but have escalated to cover a broader range of concerns such as the cost of living and inflation.
This is a developing story and our journalists are working on further updates.
Looting and buildings ablaze: France's violent Saturday protests in 10 pictures
Addressing the protests in a post on social media on Saturday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron said there was "no place for violence" in France.
Cost-of-living protests descended into violence across parts of France on Saturday as demonstrators clashed with police officers and set buildings and vehicles alight.
More than half a million people are thought to have joined the demonstrations, including 110,000 in the French capital, Paris. Violence also broke out in cities such as Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Nice, Toulouse, and Limoges, where the town hall was almost completely destroyed in a fierce blaze.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Sunday that more than 500 police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters were injured during the protests, with 1,800 people arrested.
Euronews has put together 10 of the most dramatic images from the day.
'We tore it up': French looters brag online as minister admits police 'lost control'
More than 2,000 shops were hit and the damage is put at hundreds of millions of euros, leaving the government to answer for its failure to see the violence coming.
Young people who took part in the weekend’s looting in France have posted videos on TikTok and X boasting about the goods they took and about beating the riot police.
“Thank you Paris, thank you Paname,” a young man says in one video on TikTok, using a slang name for the capital. "You’re killers, guys, we tore it all up."
His eyes are red, apparently from tear gas, and he goes on to list his haul. "I grabbed some new Under Armour," he says, referring to the American sportswear brand.
He then turns to the CRS riot police. "You ran like that, guys, we wiped you out," he says, before signing off: "Generation Z, respect."
‘You save money by looting’
In a second video, a young man explains to an interviewer why he joined in. He says he was protesting about fuel prices because his mother has a car, and that he took clothes and goods from a sports shop.
"In the end, you save money by looting," he says.
Asked for his view of France, he says: "I think France is racist, and we should all be equal." He says a restaurant turned him away earlier that day but let in "a French person".
The interviewer asks whether looting will only reinforce the image of "the North African who steals". He replies: "If we carry on like this, it’s going to be chaos."
‘You couldn’t look shopkeepers in the eye’
The bravado contrasts sharply with the mood in government. On Monday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez admitted that police had lost control.
"On Saturday, in some major cities, you couldn’t look shopkeepers in the eye after hundreds of shops had been looted and tell them we hadn’t lost control," he said.
Nuñez acknowledged a "lack of anticipation" in the deployment of security forces. He said around 60,000 police and gendarmes were on duty nationwide on Saturday, too few to handle the large crowds of rioters and looters on the fringes of the demonstrations.
"Given the damage that has been caused, it was only right that I should hand in my resignation," he said. President Emmanuel Macron refused to accept it
Damage in the ‘hundreds of millions’
Around half a million people marched across France on Saturday against the cost of living. The protests then turned into some of the worst violence the country has seen in years, with town halls and shops looted and set on fire.
In Paris, crowds of masked men in black hoodies yanked at metal shutters until they gave way. They cleared shelves of cigarettes, sunglasses, clothes, jewellery and food, AFP journalists reported. Looters left a supermarket with bags stuffed with cakes, fruit juice and alcohol.
Antique clocks disappeared from a small jewellery shop, and whole display racks of sunglasses vanished. Inside some shops, looters smashed cash registers onto the floor, only to find them empty.
More than 2,000 shops are expected to have been affected nationwide, according to Alain Di Crescenzo, president of the chamber of commerce. He put the damage at "hundreds of millions of euros".
More than 2,500 people were arrested, and almost 1,000 members of the security forces were injured. Protesters were hurt too, among them a demonstrator whose hand was blown off by a police crowd-control grenade.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said more than 2,330 people had been taken into police custody over the weekend, 70% of them adults.
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October 19, 2026
Al Bawaba News
By Osama Ali
Key Takeaways:
Mayor Guillaume Guérin alleged the attack was premeditated and said people inside feared for their lives; firefighters controlled the blaze by Sunday morning.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu pledged that the building would be rebuilt, public services maintained, and insurance compensation accelerated.
(Albawaba) — A French town hall that survived two world wars has been devastated by fire during nationwide unrest, with the mayor of Limoges alleging a deliberate attempt to burn down the building while people were inside.
Residents confronted the damage on Sunday, October 18, after flames tore through the 143-year-old landmark during Saturday’s demonstrations against rising living costs.
The ornate, 19th-century building became one of the most striking scenes of destruction during France’s worst unrest in years, Reuters reported.
Mayor Guillaume Guérin alleged that the attack was premeditated and said those inside had feared for their lives. His account did not establish who organised the attack.
Haute-Vienne prefect Maurice Barate said the roof had collapsed onto lower floors except in the western wing. Officials described the building as severely damaged and largely lost, with assessments continuing.
Firefighters battled the blaze overnight before bringing it under control on Sunday morning.
Guérin condemned the destruction, saying no disagreement or demand could justify attacks on public property.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu pledged that the town hall would be rebuilt. He also promised continuity of public services and government efforts to accelerate insurance compensation, according to Le Monde.
The immediate challenge now extends beyond restoring a historic landmark: authorities must maintain the services it provided while determining the full extent of the damage.
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