“I invite everyone to come and help us!” : in Paris, Lyon and Limoges, local residents are mobilizing to restore the streets after the violence of October 17

A citizen mobilization to put cities back in order, after the destruction, looting and fires. In Paris, nearly 1,000 cleaning agents were mobilized before dawn to clean and restore the streets of the capital, the day after the violence which broke out on the sidelines of the October 17 demonstration. They were joined “spontaneously” by local residents, the Paris town hall announced on Sunday October 18. “A surge of solidarity is being organized with hundreds of Parisians who are mobilizing so that Paris can repair itself,” said the mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire, on X. “I invite everyone to come and help us!” Residents notably helped pick up the waste scattered on Place de la République, according to photos published by the town hall.

On Magenta Boulevard, nothing remains of the Lyca boutique that Hassan manages. But neighbors and regulars came to help him on Sunday. They even opened a fund for him. “I don’t know how to thank them,” Hassan confides to franceinfo, moved. Helpless, he discovered the looting of his store "live with the video surveillance images arriving on [his] phone".

In Lyon, similar scenes were observed by France 3 Auvergne Rhône-Alpes. “We had quite a hangover seeing these terrible images of our destroyed city,” confides Clémentine. Equipped with latex gloves and garbage bags, she works to collect the garbage and broken glass that litter the ground. “When we saw a call to go help, we went down,” says Nadège, who accompanies him.

“We must regain our solidarity”

“I’m here to help my friends,” also testifies Léane, a Lyon trader, filmed by Actu Lyon. “My shop was not affected,” she explains with relief, but still shaken by the scenes of the day before. “I prefer to get my hands dirty rather than wait and watch,” she confides.

Léane, a shopkeeper, got up early this Sunday morning to clean up the damage on rue de la République in Lyon. Her shop was spared but she wanted to come and help

Other volunteers are busy. Young people, adults, parents with teenagers... Plastic bags are distributed, latex gloves given to pick up the blackened remains of a trash fire there, here dirt from a bin spilled in the middle of the road.

“We are revolted by everything that is happening, regardless of the demands, we hear that there are relevant demands, which are legitimate, but we must stop, we are all in the same boat, we are all going to pay and the violence is increasing, we must stop, we must regain our solidarity,” adds one of these volunteers. Sunday morning, the environmentalist mayor Grégory Doucet judged the “chaos which reigned in the city for several hours” “abominable”.