Newsletters
The town hall in the central French city of Limoges was “largely lost” to a fire set by masked protesters on Saturday, the regional prefect said, during nationwide demonstrations over the cost of living that turned violent in several cities.
Prefect Maurice Barate told AFP the roof had collapsed onto the lower floors, except for the west wing, and that two-thirds of the exterior had already disappeared.
He described the damage to the 143-year-old building as a “catastrophe for heritage” and blamed a “deliberate act by hooligans.”
Witnesses said a group of masked protesters who had torched a police car outside the town hall were seen breaking windows and entering the building to start the fire.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said there had been a break-in and arson inside the building.
Firefighters were deployed late Saturday to try to contain the blaze, while hundreds of people watched. Several shops in the city centre were also looted.
The town hall opened in 1883, and part of it was designated a historic monument in 1975.
Nunez said about 550,000 people took part in demonstrations across France, including 110,000 in Paris.
Organisers put the national figure at around 800,000. About 400 people were arrested, most of them adults not connected to the student movement, Nunez said, and 60 law enforcement officers were injured, including two taken to hospital unconscious.
The minister said the legal protests went ahead as planned but that groups from the “hard left and extreme left” caused the situation to degenerate at their margins, with a “clear desire” to attack public buildings.
He said looting or attempted looting was recorded in several cities, including Paris, Rouen, Nantes, Toulouse and Marseille, and that there was plenty of video evidence to identify those responsible.
In Paris, fires burned late into the evening and riot police worked to disperse crowds. Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said “entire streets have been ravaged,” while stressing that the “vast majority” of demonstrators marched peacefully.
Protesters forced their way into the town hall of the 10th arrondissement, leaving around 100 people attending a breast cancer awareness event trapped inside, and the district mayor asked police to evacuate the building.
Le Parisien reported that a street about 400 metres from President Emmanuel Macron’s offices was littered with stones and an overturned car.
A police source also told the newspaper that an elderly couple in their 80s were robbed and stripped of their clothes by rioters in central Paris.
In Bordeaux, the official residence of the prefect of Gironde was ransacked, and the elite RAID police unit helped clear the premises.
Dozens of shops were looted in Marseille, and a fire broke out inside a sports shoe shop there.
Authorities in Toulon said two police officers were hurt by projectiles, and officials in Caen reported looting, vandalism and damage to two police vehicles. A union of senior internal security staff said a Hugo Boss store in Lyon was looted and set on fire.
The unrest also spread beyond France’s borders.
Italian police fired tear gas in Milan after coming under attack from protesters in the square in front of the city’s cathedral, in clashes that Italian media said were inspired by the French demonstrations.
Several people were reported injured and a number of arrests were made.
Regis Juanico, the mayor of Saint-Étienne, said a young man “had his hand blown off by a grenade” during the day’s demonstrations.
He did not specify what kind of grenade was involved or whether police had deployed it.
Earlier this month, a 15-year-old’s hand was blown off in the northern city of Lens after an anti-encirclement grenade was fired in unclear circumstances.
Nunez had halted the use of stun grenades at demonstrations after that incident.
On Friday, however, he told France 2 that police must be able to use all intermediate weapons at their disposal, from tear gas grenades to defence ball launchers, if urban violence erupted.
Macron said “there is no place for violence” in France and that those who attacked prefectures and businesses and looted town halls would be prosecuted and punished.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu blamed ultra-left groups for organising the violence and said criminals had joined in to loot.
He said anyone seeking to use the violence as a “warm-up” before the presidential election in April would not succeed, adding that the country would not be “intimidated.”
Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise, accused Lecornu of “playing with fire” by letting the situation fester, and said the government had caused the chaos through “absurd and incompetent decisions.”
Clemence Guette, a vice-president of the National Assembly from the same party, criticised Nunez over the police response, saying officers were blocking thousands of people at a protest that was legal and declared. Nuñez said earlier that police had helped the regular protests go ahead by containing violent demonstrators.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
