France riots: up to 2,400 arrested after 550,000 march over fuel prices, Limoges town hall burned

France protests turned into the country's worst rioting in years over the weekend: between 1,800 and 2,400 people were arrested after about 550,000 marched on Saturday 17 October against rising fuel prices and living costs, and masked groups then looted shops and set fire to public buildings, including the 19th-century town hall in Limoges. President Emmanuel Macron went on television on Sunday evening to call for "calm and order".

The arrest count depends on who is counting and when. The Associated Press, reported by CBS News, put it at at least 1,800 nationwide; AFP, carried by Dawn, said about 2,000; and the BBC later cited the interior ministry at about 2,400.

What happened on Saturday and Sunday

• The march: about 550,000 people by the interior ministry's count, 800,000 by the CGT union's. It brought together weeks of student protests over conditions in schools with unions and the Yellow Vest movement, which had called "yellow and youth" protests over fuel and the cost of living.
• The riots: after the main marches, groups dressed in black and masked attacked city halls, burned cars and looted shops in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, Nice and Strasbourg.
• Paris: 855 arrests in the Paris region on Saturday, with 557 held in custody, prosecutors said. On Sunday police fired tear gas and stun grenades at several hundred people at Place de la République, where cobblestones were pulled up and the base of the Marianne statue was damaged.
• Limoges: the city hall's roof and clock tower collapsed in a fire the Haute-Vienne prefect, Maurice Barate, said was set deliberately. About 7,000 people marched in the city on Sunday.
• Damage: the Retail and Trade Federation counted about 1,500 businesses damaged, with losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars, AFP reported.

Injuries and a death

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said more than 500 police officers, gendarmes, firefighters and paramedics were hurt; the BBC later reported the ministry's figure as about 1,000 police officers injured on Saturday, seven seriously. Prosecutors said a 17-year-old boy lost his right hand to a crowd-control grenade in Saint-Étienne and a 17-year-old girl lost an eye in Mulhouse. One man died during the Paris march of a heart attack, police said.

What Macron said

In his address from the Élysée Palace, Macron separated the "legitimate demands" of protesters from those who destroyed and looted, said nothing justified the violence and promised that looters would face justice and pay for the damage. He blamed "insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups", asked prefects and mayors to draw up plans to protect shops and civic buildings, and promised "full transparency" on how the police responded.

Nuñez said several thousand far-left activists had targeted public buildings and police, and that opportunistic looters joined in later.

The politics

France votes for a new president next spring, and both ends of the spectrum moved quickly. Marine Le Pen of the National Rally blamed ultra-left groups and said the government was "running on fumes". Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Unbowed, who joined the Paris march, said the authorities had inflamed tensions. US President Donald Trump posted "France is burning!" and blamed immigration; French officials have not linked the riots to immigrants and blame far-left groups and looters.

Why it matters here

The protests began over the same pressures Pakistanis know well: fuel and the cost of living. The euro trades at about Rs 310.84 today; track it on our euro to rupee page, or convert remittances with the currency converter. Pakistanis living in Paris, Lyon or Marseille should keep clear of protest gatherings and follow local police instructions while the unrest continues.