France’s Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu says he has instructed prefects, the government’s regional representatives, to impose “very limited” and “localised” curfews to prevent more rioting and looting, following weekend violence that targeted city halls, other public buildings and thousands of businesses across the country.

Also read | France protests: Police arrest 1,800 after violent clashes and looting mar protests

Speaking after an emergency meeting with top government officials, Mr. Lecornu said, “On Saturday [October 17, 2026], despite scenes of severe violence and extensive property damage, no one was killed, and that is a miracle,” as he defended the work of police officers faced with violent groups of people.

Mr. Lecornu said details of the areas to be placed under curfew will be provided later Monday (October 19).

The instructions come as Interior Minister Laurent Nunez offered his resignation Sunday (October 18), but President Emmanuel Macron refused it “given the need for continued command of law enforcement in the current context,” Mr. Macron’s office said in a statement Monday (October 19).

He instructed Mr. Nunez “to take all necessary steps to ensure full transparency about the failures in planning and intelligence-gathering that led to the violence,” the statement said.

Mr. Macron also asked for the introduction of “new policing tactics on the ground as quickly as possible” to put an end to violent events.

On Sunday evening (October 18), groups set fires to trash bins, bicycles and other objects in the streets and looted businesses in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other cities. That followed major violence during nationwide protests on Saturday (October 17) against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. At least 2,400 people were arrested across the country.

Authorities estimated Monday (October 19) that at least 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted in several cities in the weekend violence.

In Marseille, the prefect banned any protest or other gathering from noon to 8 p.m. Monday (October 19).

“I submitted my resignation because I am responsible for everything that is happening,” Mr. Nunez said on France Inter radio. “Now, the real issue is ensuring that this doesn’t happen again. … We obviously need to be better at anticipating the kind of mobilisation that is unfolding.”

Mr. Nunez blamed violence on “hordes of troublemakers and looters” and “far-left activists,” and said police strategy needs to be adapted “in the face of extremely mobile groups.” Authorities said groups of hundreds of people sought confrontations with police and targeted public buildings, including city halls and other public offices.

Mr. Nunez acknowledged that authorities had “lost control” in some major cities Saturday, when hundreds of businesses were looted.

“You can’t look shopkeepers in the eye when hundreds of businesses have been looted and say we haven’t lost control in some of these major cities,” Nunez said.

Flames engulf parts of France

Flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall in Limoges, in central France, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.

In Paris on Monday (October 19), cleanup crews and firefighters cleared shattered glass and other debris from the streets.

Ouri Zagoury, owner of a video game shop near Paris’ Place de la République, said he closed the store Saturday afternoon (October 17) but then saw looters forcing their way in on surveillance cameras.

“There were so many people coming in and out. And even though I called the police, they said not to intervene, that they would come, but they never did, which is another problem,” Mr. Zagoury said.

Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally, pointed to the government’s failure to prevent violence. “The government has failed, the head of state has failed in his essential duty of protecting the French people,” he told reporters at party headquarters.

“I call on the people of France now, beyond their right to protest, to use their voting power,” Mr. Bardella said. He is campaigning alongside far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose polling numbers have for months suggested she is the front-runner in next spring’s presidential election.

Published – October 19, 2026 06:38 pm IST

France was reeling on Sunday (October 18, 2026) from widespread damage caused by violent protests the day before that saw 1,800 people arrested, a historic town hall torched and widespread looting.

Also read | French unions say 480,000 people took part in pro-student protests

“It’s like we had a war,” a 78-year-old resident in central Paris, Mehmet Ozeden, told AFP amid burnt street barricades from the protests.

The convulsion raised the stakes for President Emmanuel Macron, who is in his final months in power before elections to replace him in six months’ time. It followed weeks of student protests that had also turned violent at times.

Mr. Macron was to address the nation Sunday (October 18) at 6 p.m. GMT, his office said, after meeting key ministers.

Interior Minister Laurent Núñez said 1,800 people were arrested over the protests and looting, with investigations under way “to identify the perpetrators of these acts so they can be brought to justice”.

Torched cars, smashed shopfronts and burnt debris scarred numerous streets in Paris, where officials said 557 people were in custody after a “record” number of arrests.

The capital experienced “a level of violence that we have never, I believe, seen before”, said Paris deputy mayor Lamia El Aaraje.

Hundreds of shops were looted in Paris and other cities, including Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice and Strasbourg, during the protests over the cost of living.

One person died during the main march in Paris, but officials said it was health-related and not linked to the protest violence.

Around 1,500 businesses were damaged, causing losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of euros, according to the Retail and Trade Federation.

One Paris resident, Anita Gras, out for a jog between the debris, said she saw young men loot a sports shoe retailer.

“They stayed until 1:00 a.m., we were afraid they were going to throw things at us,” she said.

“It’s appalling, terrifying — groups of young people came here yesterday [October 17], looting, smashing everything, with total impunity,” said another resident, 57-year-old Cecile Rogue, surveying a pile of charred bicycles.

‘Wild horde’

The city of Limoges lost its 19^th-century town hall to a fire. The local prefect, Maurice Barate, told news channel LCI it had been deliberately set by “a wild horde” and was only brought under control early Sunday (October 18).

The mayor of Lyon, Gregory Doucet, said “the chaos that reigned in the city for several hours was abominable”.

A tourist office in the centre of Lyon was set ablaze during the protests, which saw multiple clashes and looting.

Political recriminations have followed, with the government and far-right leader Marine Le Pen blaming ultra-left groups, while far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon accused authorities of inflaming tensions.

Paris’s Socialist deputy mayor El Aaraje accused Le Pen’s party of “acting like a pyromaniac firefighter”, using the protests to further her presidential ambitions.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance also waded in, implying on X that the unrest was because France had “imported the third world”.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was to chair a crisis meeting of ministers at 8 a.m. GMT on Monday (October 19), his office said. They were to look at the insurance and help for impacted shops as well as the prosecution of perpetrators of the violence.

Half a million demonstrators

In Paris, startled tourists were seen Saturday (October 17) running with suitcases along streets filled with tear gas and protesters.

A Danish tourist, Soren Petersen, said it was “sad” to see damage to Paris buildings. “It is not a protest, it’s far beyond a normal protest,” he told AFP.

An American tourist, Jill Burns, said “we were scared”.

Around 500 police, firefighters and paramedics were hurt in the protests, the Interior Minister said.

The violence took place on the sidelines of nationwide protests that the interior ministry said were attended by 550,000 people. The CGT union said 800,000 people participated.

A 17-year-old boy had his right hand blown off by a crowd-control grenade in the southern city of Saint-Etienne.

Analyst Mujtaba Rahman of the Eurasia Group think tank said on X that most of the demonstrations Saturday (October 17) were peaceful, and “the violence came from a fringe of the ultra left” with looting “by opportunistic gangs from the poor suburbs”.

“All good news for Marine Le Pen,” he said.

France’s Yellow Vest movement, which staged street protests eight years ago against Mr. Macron’s government over planned fuel-tax hikes, had called Saturday’s (October 17) “yellow and youth” demonstrations.

The principal grievance was the cost of living, pushed up in part by the war in West Asia, which has helped send inflation soaring in Europe as elsewhere.

Published – October 18, 2026 07:18 pm IST

A protester holds a board with a photo of French President Emmanuel Macron in front of a burning tourism office during a demonstration against rising living costs and in solidarity with students’ grievances in Lyon, France, on October 17, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

The French government said on Wednesday (October 7, 2026) it ‌was pausing the use of stun grenades in its policing of student protests, after a 15-year-old ​boy’s hand was blown off during a clash with riot police, fuelling protesters’ accusations of police brutality.

Protests showed ⁠no sign of easing, with more than 500 schools closed a day after demonstrations swept across the country, and unions representing high-school students, teachers and other workers planning more marches for Thursday (October 8, 2026).

The wave of protests has been going on for more than two weeks and has exposed widespread public ‌anger six months ahead of an election to replace President Emmanuel Macron.

At Lycee Lamartine, a high school in central Paris, protesters sang the Marseillaise, chanted slogans and performed Mexican waves as they blockaded the entrance to the ‌school.

“We saw there were lots of crumbling walls, a shortage of teachers in public schools, absent teachers,” said Gabriel Fillieule, ‌who ⁠used to attend a public school but now goes to a private one. He and others said ⁠they were protesting to demand better learning conditions for all.

Police’s use of force being investigated

While most of Wednesday’s (October 6, 2026) blockades were peaceful, police used tear gas and pushed back protesters in a street barricaded by rubbish bins outside Sciences Po university in central Paris.

Rights groups, labour unions, students and some opposition politicians have ​accused the police of using disproportionate force to quell the ‌wave of protests.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said he had ordered the suspension of the use of stun grenades following an incident in the northern city of Lens on Monday (October 5, 2026) in which there was a “strong possibility” the firing of a stun grenade had caused a teenager to lose his hand.

“I am suspending their use for the high-school students’ movement until light has ‌been shed on what happened in this case,” said the Minister, who added that 18 incidents in total had ​been referred to the police inspectorate for investigation.

Protesters have said they blame poor learning conditions for a sharp drop in French teenagers’ scores in reading and maths over the past decade.

French 15-year-olds scored 43 ⁠points lower in reading in 2025 than in 2015, according to the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, the biggest drop among the OECD countries. Their maths scores also dropped the most.

But the government, under pressure to tame public debt amid weak growth, has little ‌spare cash to address students’ complaints of teacher shortages, ageing school buildings and inequalities between schools in affluent and poor areas.

Twenty-four high schools damaged by fire or vandalism

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has acknowledged the “legitimate” demands of France’s students but also described the unrest as the most violent student demonstrations in decades.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray told parliament that 24 high schools had been damaged by fire or vandalism to the extent that they would remain closed for weeks, meaning some 30,000 students would receive no in-person teaching until they reopened.

He estimated it would cost €20 million to €30 million ($22 million to $34 million) to fix the damage.

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, ‌the frontrunner according to opinion polls, said those who damaged schools should pay for the repairs rather than taxpayers.

The government has adopted a similar stance ​and has a bill going through parliament that aims to set up such a system.

Unrest elsewhere

Elsewhere in Europe, where budgets have been under pressure as governments respond to successive cost-of-living and energy crises, students in parts ⁠of Belgium staged similar protests.

In the Belgian city of Liege in the southern French-speaking Wallonia region, at least 107 people have been ⁠arrested in connection with student protests this month, the Belga news agency reported.

Teachers are also on strike.

In Portugal, the main teachers’ union FENPROF launched an indefinite strike in mid-September over working conditions, with teachers refusing to do any unpaid ‌work beyond the 35 hours a week mandated by law.

And in Spain, teachers’ unions have been protesting conditions in state schools. Teachers in Madrid plan a strike on October 14 to press demands including a reduction in hours, smaller class sizes ​and higher salaries.

Published – October 07, 2026 10:02 pm IST

Up to 500 schools across France will be totally or partly closed on Monday (October 5, 2026) because of a wave of student protests that has shaken the country, the Education Minister said.

Lessons will be “totally or partly suspended” in some “400-500” high schools as the security conditions “have not been fulfilled”, said Education Minister Edouard Geffray on Sunday (October 4, 2026), adding that 24 schools had been “burned or ransacked” since the start of the movement.

He described the closures as chiefly a security precaution ahead of large-scale protests that the leaders of the movement have called for Tuesday (October 6, 2026).

The teenagers at French high schools, known as lycees, say that their studies are being ruined by high teacher absence rates, overlong school days and dilapidated facilities, as well as other grievances.

mr. Geffray said the number of schools affected on Monday would be comparable to the figure from Friday but vowed there would be a “partial, progressive return to lessons”.

More than a third of the 468 schools in the wider Ile-de-France region surrounding the capital will be shut on Monday as a result of the protests, Valerie Pecresse, the right-wing president of the region, told broadcaster Franceinfo.

The movement began at a Paris school on September 17 but grew last week into nationwide protests marked in places by outbursts of violence involving teenagers and security forces, which have used tear gas and truncheons against the students.

“There are activists — particularly from the far-left — who have infiltrated the high school student movement, hijacked it from the students themselves, and engaged in extreme violence,” Mr. Geffray claimed.

“Clearly, this poses a risk to both our staff and our students,” he said, adding that 78 education staff members had been wounded — “something we have never seen before”.

‘Deliberately targeted’

“They were deliberately targeted because they were employees of the national education system,” Mr. Geffray said.

Organisers have called for the protests to continue on Tuesday, citing a lack of “concrete measures” from the government.

In a bid to address the protesters’ concerns, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu set out a timetable on Sunday urging local authorities to prioritise filling gaps left by long-term absences and unfilled posts.

He also called a meeting for Tuesday (October 6, 2026) with regional presidents to discuss overhauling the country’s often-dilapidated school buildings.

Over 5,000 people, 85 percent of them minors, have been arrested since the start of the movement.

Critics have accused the police of using heavy-handed tactics against children.

A 16-year-old was detained on Sunday (October 4, 2026) over the assault of a teacher in the southern town of La Ciotat. The teacher, 59, was struck and doused with gasoline on the sidelines of a high school student protest on Friday (October 2, 2026).

A video circulating on social media appears to show an individual dressed entirely in black with a masked face splashing liquid onto the teacher, who then clutches his face while a tree burns nearby.

A group of youths were last week filmed beating and kicking a policeman on the ground in Belfort in eastern France in images that caused an outcry among officials.

Two youths, Bulgarian nationals aged 15 and 17, have been arrested and investigated for suspected aggravated violence, the prosecutor said.

One of the youths, whom the policeman had tried to arrest before being beaten, has now filed his own attempted murder complaint, his lawyer said.

The France branch of Amnesty last week slammed “disproportionate police violence” in tackling the demonstrations and said students must be allowed to express their grievances.

“Authorities must allow young people to exercise these rights without fear of being hit by tear gas grenades or batons, or being arbitrarily taken into police custody,” said Amnesty France president Anne Savinel-Barras.

But Interior Minister Laurent Nunez stated that security forces “are not cracking down on young people” but rather “protecting” school and university students wishing to “peacefully voice their demands”.

Published – October 05, 2026 02:44 am IST

French CRS riot police stand in position amid clashes during a protest by high school students outside the Lycee Deodat-de-Severac high school as part of nationwide protests by high school students to demand the hiring of substitute teachers, increased resources and better learning conditions, France, October 2, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

French CRS riot police stand guard in front of the entrance of the Lycee Paul Eluard high school as students continue a blockade to demand the hiring of substitute teachers and increased resources in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France, on September 30, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters