This is what Limoges town hall looks like after the spire collapsed during the riots in France

The Limoges Town Hall, a building declared a historical monument and built in the last quarter of the 19th century, was practically destroyed by the fire caused yesterday Saturday during an attack by protesters who were participating in the day of social protests in France.

“There are no words to condemn what has happened, it is so abject,” declared the mayor of this city in central France, Guillaume Guérin, in statements to the media, four hours after several hundred people set fire to City Hall around 5:00 p.m. and left several cars overturned in front of the building.

The assailants were quickly evacuated, but the flames could not be extinguished and spread to the upper floors and reached the roof, which ended up collapsing. The Town Hall building had been built between 1876 and 1883 on the basis of the old Paris Town Hall with a mixture of styles from the late Renaissance and the time of Louis XIII.

Firefighters battled the blaze well into the night, while eyewitnesses captured the dramatic moment the tower collapsed.

"From tomorrow we are going to ensure continuity of the service, we are going to organize ourselves. They have destroyed a building that the inhabitants of Limoges love, but they have not destroyed the public service. It is a monument that burns, but not the Republic," said Mayor Guérin.

The mayor also expressed his confidence that those responsible will be arrested and maintained that the agents deployed during the protest did not have sufficient means to contain the violent participants.

According to the prefect's statement today, around 5,000 people participated in the demonstration, including several hundred individuals whom he described as radicalized and extremely violent.

After the incidents at City Hall, some protesters headed towards the prefecture, while others looted businesses in the city center, he added.