The French Ministry of the Interior reported 166 arrests during Saturday’s protests over prices and inequality, with nearly 33,000 people taking part in 140 actions nationwide.
The ministry said its tally, taken by early afternoon, included dozens of arrests in Paris before scheduled demonstrations began. The total covered 140 separate actions involving nearly 33,000 people.
The ministry attributed targeted violence in Paris, Marseille, Rennes, Toulouse and Angers to people it described as hooded. It accused protesters of attempted looting, attacks on police and setting fires, and said government institutions had been targeted. Separately, The Independent reported damage to a police station in Marseille and tear gas use at several locations.
The Independent said the national mobilization followed high-school demonstrations in Paris’s northern suburbs in September. It linked the spread of protests to concerns about teacher absences and school facilities, alongside broader grievances over inequality, public spending and falling standards. The Independent reported police were visible near the Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe; those sites were omitted from the routes of Paris’s two official marches.
The Independent reported that Lola, a 19-year-old Paris protester, cited fuel prices, daily expenses and school conditions as reasons for joining.
The outlet also reported injuries on both sides. A teenager lost a hand after picking up a stun grenade, it said. The Independent attributed a figure of more than 900 injured police officers to Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu; an internal police watchdog was investigating at least two dozen alleged police-violence cases.
The government accused hard-left France Unbowed of stoking the protests, a charge the party denied, The Independent reported. The outlet also pointed to the 2018 Yellow Vest protests, which grew from opposition to diesel taxes into broader anger over household costs and income inequality.
