LIVE - Violence of October 17: new clashes and looted stores in Paris, Emmanuel Macron tries to regain control after the chaos

The prefect of the Guadeloupe region established a curfew on Sunday for minors in the municipalities of Pointe-à-Pitre and Abymes, after urban violence on the sidelines of the movement against the high cost of living during which three police officers were injured by bullets.

A travel ban for young people under the age of 18, unaccompanied by an adult exercising parental authority, will be in effect from 8:00 p.m. Sunday (00:00 Monday GMT) to 6:00 Monday morning (10:00 GMT), according to a prefectural decree.

This measure aims “above all to protect minors who could be at the scene of violence,” explained prefect Thierry Devimeux in a press release. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, multiple flaming barricades were erected and “several businesses and businesses were vandalized or even destroyed,” details the prefecture.

During the clashes, the security forces were subjected to projectiles and “gunfire”, injuring three police officers. The police noted the presence of “numerous minors within the groups of rioters”, indicated Thierry Devimeux. The prefect condemned “with the greatest firmness these acts of unacceptable violence”, adding that they constituted offenses which “cannot be confused with the peaceful expression of demands”.

Highly criticized after a weekend of violence which compromised the end of an already chaotic five-year term, Emmanuel Macron arrived in the Gulf on Monday, where he continued his tour, with the objective of securing volumes of oil and diesel to lower prices at the pump.

An air of déjà vu, or almost. In 2018, when the third yellow vest demonstration turned into a riot, with the ransacking of the Arc de Triomphe, the head of state was traveling in Argentina. He saw the damage and the anger when he returned to France the next day.

On Sunday, the Élysée announced that the president was maintaining his tour in the Gulf from Monday to Wednesday despite the crisis arising from the numerous violence on Saturday around demonstrations “against the high cost of living”. And, in his speech, Emmanuel Macron explained that this trip was intended to “secure our supplies”, the demonstrators having notably expressed “concern (...) about the price of fuel”.

Also read Violence in France: “Anger and shame”, “transparency” requested, 2027… What to remember from Emmanuel Macron’s speech

Clashes in Paris, where new stores were looted, intrusion attempts in Lyon, Marseille and near Nantes... The day after massive violence, incidents broke out again on Sunday, particularly in the capital.

The police headquarters (PP) reported 108 arrests in Paris on Sunday, including 66 in the evening, and counted at least five stores looted, including a clothing store, a Darty in Belleville and two supermarkets. In the center of the capital, the PP reported “scattered groups of young delinquents of opportunity continuing to seek to loot stores in the Châtelet/Les Halles sector”.

Near Sébastopol Boulevard, several dozen young people shouted anti-police slogans, throwing glass bottles in the direction of the police, according to an AFP reporter. An entrance door to the emblematic BHV Marais department store was broken and gutted and looters got inside, noted an AFP journalist.

Towards the Pompidou Museum, the window of an Afflelou optical store was broken, AFP also observed. Groups of young people, all dressed in black and hooded, moved quickly through the streets looking for a landing point, among local residents and tourists strolling around, sometimes forced to cover their noses with a paper towel in the face of tear gas.