Great devastation after the protests in France

In the first arrondissement of central Paris, on Sunday morning it was impossible to find a single shop that had been left untouched, reports Le Parisien. Tobacconists, opticians, beauty salons, clothing stores, pharmacies – all had broken windows, graffiti or other signs of destruction.

Across the country, between 550,000 and 800,000 people are said to have taken part in Saturday's protests, which began as a student movement but have grown to involve everything from unions and farmers to the yellow vests.

The demonstrations have been mainly peaceful but on Saturday they degenerated into what Le Figaro describes as "urban guerrilla warfare", and also from cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Nice extensive looting and destruction are reported.

- I never thought I would see anything like this. They have destroyed our heritage, a resident of Limoges, where the 19th-century town hall was set on fire, told Le Figaro.

"Stand united against the chaos spreaders"

President Emmanuel Macron promises that those who perpetrated violence and destruction will be punished. "We will all stand united against the spreaders of chaos, who only seek to overthrow our institutions and prevent those who peacefully express their demands from doing so," he writes on X.

The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon sent out a joint statement late Saturday night calling for a meeting with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu next week, as well as "a clear and transparent investigation into the chain of events that led to this situation."

Record number of arrests

A total of around 1,200 people were arrested on Saturday, of which a "record number" of 855 people in Paris according to a compilation by the police. Around 150 police officers are said to have been injured and one person is said to have died as a result of cardiac arrest.

According to Deputy Mayor Lamia El Araaje, up to 95 percent of those arrested in Paris are adults, which she says indicates "practically no connection" to the student movement, she tells France Info. She also paid tribute to the approximately 1,000 cleaning workers who began restoring the city's streets around midnight, under police protection.