France Arrest Count Rises to 1,800 and Injured Responders Top 500 as Macron Prepares to Address Nation

Since Saturday's nationwide protest day on Oct. 17, the official toll has grown sharply: Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Sunday that more than 1,800 people have been arrested, up from the 1,200 Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu cited Saturday night.

Nuñez also said more than 500 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters were injured, and called that count "only provisional." Lecornu's earlier figure was 150 injured police and gendarmes. The two numbers cover different groups and were given at different times, and the interior minister has not said how many of the 500 are police.

Paris police said 855 of the arrests were in the capital region alone.

Macron's response

President Emmanuel Macron will hold an emergency meeting with top government officials Sunday afternoon, then address the nation at 8 p.m., according to his office. He has already said that anyone who vandalized offices or businesses, or looted, "will be prosecuted and punished."

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said he has told all prosecutors to deliver an "extremely firm judicial response." Pre-trial detention, he said, must be requested for those who targeted police, firefighters, public buildings and businesses.

Nuñez wrote on X that "the right to protest is a fundamental right," but that violent, coordinated disorder is not. He said thousands of "far-left" individuals began attacking public buildings by midday, with Marseille hit as early as the morning, and were then joined by "criminals who looted and ransacked" businesses.

Damage and casualties

The Retail and Trade Federation said about 1,500 shops and retailers were damaged. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said whole streets in the capital "have been devastated."

Police said groups of several hundred to more than 1,000 people formed unauthorized marches in central Paris. "By late afternoon, a new phase began with the arrival of large numbers of people whose sole aim was to steal and loot, taking advantage of the unrest," police said.

AFP reporters in Paris saw groups of about six young men attacking shops in an organized way. They wore masks and gloves and disconnected security cameras before smashing windows.

A Paris shop owner near Place de la République told the BBC that CCTV showed looters inside for just over an hour and a half. He said he saw no police during that time. He asked not to be named.

In Limoges, Haute-Vienne prefect Maurice Barate said the fire at the 19th-century City Hall was deliberately set. It nearly destroyed the building and was under control by Sunday. Marseille's City Hall lobby was breached, and a police station there was damaged.

Paris police said one person died of a heart attack. They gave no details, and the Paris prosecutors' office is investigating.

According to AFP, a 17-year-old boy lost his right hand to a crowd-control grenade in Saint-Étienne. Riot police used tear gas and water cannon against protesters who threw projectiles and fired fireworks.

The march versus the riots

The protests grew out of weeks of student demonstrations over staff shortages and dilapidated lycées, and unions and other groups joined. Authorities counted 550,000 marchers. The CGT union said 800,000.

The main Paris march was largely peaceful in the afternoon. Young demonstrators told the BBC they were "pacifists" who were "just trying to make things change, but nothing is moving."

The shop owner told the BBC he did not believe the looters were genuine protesters over school conditions or living costs.

Lecornu and Nuñez blamed "radical far-left groups" for the initial violence and said others joined later to loot. Lecornu told Paris police Saturday evening: "It's time to choose your side, either that of the Republic or that of the rioters."

Politics before the April and May vote

The unrest comes about six months before the presidential election to replace Macron. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen condemned "the rioters" and said the party of her far-left rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon had "legitimised the violence." She vowed to protect the French "from the violence of the extreme left."

Mélenchon had prominently backed the demonstrations and the student protests that preceded them.

The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon have asked Lecornu for a meeting in the coming days "given the extent of the damage and the seriousness of the situation."

Protests over living costs also turned violent in Milan on Saturday. Police there said at least two officers were injured and about 50 demonstrators were detained, according to LaPresse.

Macron's 8 p.m. address and the mayors' requested meeting with Lecornu are the next scheduled steps. Prosecutors must now turn some 1,800 arrests into cases, with Darmanin's instruction to seek pre-trial detention for those who targeted police, firefighters, public buildings and businesses.