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World

France protests end in evening of looting as half a million march and a protester is maimed

Around 550,000 people marched in Saturday's nationwide cost-of-living protests, the interior ministry said, as looters stripped shops in five cities and a protester in Saint-Etienne had his hand blown off by a police grenade. Emmanuel Macron vowed that vandals "will be prosecuted and punished".

By Priya Raman · · 1 min read

The Monument à la République at Place de la République in Paris — the starting point of the 17 October 2026 cost-of-living protest march.
Photo: Arthur Weidmann, via Wikimedia Commons

The evening toll of Saturday’s nationwide cost-of-living protests sharply exceeded the morning figures: the interior ministry put turnout at around 550,000 people with some 400 arrests, while the CGT union said 800,000 took part.

In Saint-Etienne, a male protester had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, a police source told AFP — the second such maiming this month after a 15-year-old lost his hand on 5 October during a protest in Lens. Flames reached the roof of the town hall in Limoges after an attack; protesters set ablaze a tourist office in Lyon and forced their way into town halls in Marseille and Lille, and a police compound in Bordeaux.

Dozens of shops were looted in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux and Lille, where an Apple store was stripped, AFP journalists reported. More than 300 protesters tried to push up Paris’s Champs-Elysees, chanting “All cops are bastards” as police fired tear gas; Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said “entire streets have been devastated” in the capital.

Late on Saturday, Emmanuel Macron said on X: “Those who carried out vandalism, attacked administrative offices or businesses, or carried out looting — even in our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished”. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu condemned the “violence of extreme intensity”.

Earlier unrest spread beyond France: several hundred mostly young people clashed with police in Brussels in a demonstration partly inspired by the French protests, with police using tear gas and water cannon.

Earlier: Planned cost-of-living protests turn violent across France as police fire tear gas in Paris

Sources

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