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Fires burn through Paris as France deploys 70,000 forces against fourth week of riots

Confirmed

World Desk

In Short: France deployed 70,000 police and gendarmes on Saturday for a fourth weekend of protests over prices and wages. The Interior Ministry counted 146,000 marchers nationwide. The Paris police prefecture counted 46,000 in the capital. Youth unions counted 250,000 and 75,000. The photographs were taken on 17 October.

A car burns in a Paris street, 17 October 2026
Photo: Jorge Jaramillo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

A car burns in a Paris street, 17 October 2026.

Saturday, 7 November. A trash fire near Place de la Nation. YouTube — CNEWS

The authorized march left Place de la République for Place de la Nation at 2 p.m., called against the cost of living and for young people. It was the fourth Saturday in a row.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had said on Friday that the risk was “exactly the same as on previous Saturdays,” and he told the services not to lower their guard. The deployment, on top of the 70,000 officers, included 25 Centaure armored vehicles, 15 water cannon, drones, and helicopters.

The Paris police prefecture banned a separate Yellow Vest gathering at Place de la Concorde. Dozens of people who assembled there were checked and fined 135 euros, BFM reported. Benjamin Ball and Azelma Sigaux, two spokespeople for the vests, were arrested early in the afternoon outside the National Assembly and held at the 17th arrondissement station. Sigaux told Franceinfo she had been arrested with Ball and was “surrounded by 50 to 60 CRS, as if we were terrorists.” Their lawyer, David Libeskind, said they were accused of organizing a banned demonstration and were not arrested on the square.

At Place de la Nation, a group of about 200 people attacked officers who were arresting a man after he set a trash bin on fire. The prefecture said two bins were burning by 6 p.m., with more set on boulevard Voltaire. In Lyon, trash containers were set on fire at a gathering that had no authorization, and police fired tear gas at several hundred people blocking a road. Fox said video from the day showed tear gas, detentions, and fires in the capital. Fox’s own headline was “Paris agitators defy police orders, renew nationwide protests centered in Paris.”

The arrest totals published Saturday evening did not match. AFP, citing the Interior Ministry’s final count, reported at least 232 arrests. BFM, also citing the ministry, reported 360 arrests recorded by 7 p.m.

Authorities had expected as many as 170,000 people, including 60,000 in Paris. An early-afternoon reading given to AFP put the national figure at 7,000 and described a falling trend. The ministry’s final count was 146,000. The youth union alliance counted 250,000 nationwide and 75,000 in Paris.

On Thursday, 5 November, a union strike day drew 575,000 people by the Interior Ministry’s count, including 65,000 in Paris. The CGT counted 1.6 million. Authorities reported 448 arrests that day and 53 officers injured.

The photographs are from Saturday, 17 October, the weekend the prefecture cited when it closed Place de la Concorde to the Yellow Vests. The Interior Ministry later put that day’s arrests at about 2,400 and the number of injured officers at nearly 1,000. The retail federation said about 1,500 shops were damaged. The ministry counted 550,000 marchers. Those figures belong to 17 October.

Background

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called unions and employers to Matignon on Monday, 9 November, at 9:30 a.m., to take up purchasing power and wages. His office also scheduled a meeting with lycée and student representatives from 3:30 to 5 p.m. The union alliance said it would decide the next steps of the movement on Monday. The net minimum wage is 1,477 euros. CFDT leader Marylise Léon has asked for 100 euros a month on top of that.

The marches began in September among students and widened into a national argument about prices, wages, schools, and the budget, with a presidential election due in the spring. Saturday’s ministry count of 146,000 sat below the 170,000 the authorities had expected that morning, and below the 550,000 they counted on 17 October. The fires in this series are three weeks old. They are the pictures of this unrest that can be shown, frame by frame, in the story.

Sources