France: 2,000 arrested after mass protests

PARIS, October 2 /ATSH-ANSA/ – Chaos, violence and more than two thousand arrests across France, as student protests escalated into outright riots, accompanied by burned schools and clashes with police.

At a high school in Marseille, the principal and staff were attacked and sprayed with petrol.

An emergency government meeting is under way in Paris and all ministerial travel has been cancelled to deal with the emergency situation.

From Le Pen to the government, everyone is criticising Mélenchon’s “France Insoumise” party, claiming the riots were “orchestrated by the far left”.

“It is hard to stop them; their anger stems from many different causes, starting from the high cost of living to Gaza,” said Cohn-Bendit, a former leader of the French movement of ’68.

Nearly two thousand detained over the protests

Law enforcement detained 1,949 people today amid blockades and student protests in France, according to the Interior Ministry in Paris.

The number of blockades and incidents linked to the student mobilisation in France has risen, reaching a total of “900 protest actions” recorded across the country today, according to security sources cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The unrest now affects every French department and the authorities have noted an “intensification” of the situation since yesterday.

Sources speak of “a turning point, with a shift towards more radical tones” and “episodes of urban violence near high schools”.

Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire announced in a message on X that a municipal police vehicle was attacked this morning “on the margins of a student protest” in the 16th arrondissement and that an officer was injured.

“I want to express my full support for him and for all the officers shocked by this attack,” the deputy mayor said on X.