Europe

French government holds crisis talks after most violent unrest in years

More than 2000 arrested as masked looters ransack Paris shops, Limoges mayor says municipal police ran out of ammunition before the town hall burned

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People stormed and torched the town hall in Limoges, central France, destroying the 19th-century building. Photograph: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images People stormed and torched the town hall in Limoges, central France, destroying the 19th-century building. Photograph: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images theguardian.com
A car burns in a Paris street near graffiti reading ‘introduction to civil war’. Photograph: Guillaume Saligot/AFP/Getty Images A car burns in a Paris street near graffiti reading ‘introduction to civil war’. Photograph: Guillaume Saligot/AFP/Getty Images theguardian.com
A protester throws a smoke flare towards gendarmes in Bordeaux, south-western France. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images A protester throws a smoke flare towards gendarmes in Bordeaux, south-western France. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images theguardian.com
Burnt-out cars, smashed windows and the remains of barricades littered the streets of Paris on Sunday. Photograph: Stéphanie Lecocq/Reuters Burnt-out cars, smashed windows and the remains of barricades littered the streets of Paris on Sunday. Photograph: Stéphanie Lecocq/Reuters theguardian.com
A demonstrator in front of burning barricades in Marseille. Photograph: Sener Yilmaz Aslan/Getty Images A demonstrator in front of burning barricades in Marseille. Photograph: Sener Yilmaz Aslan/Getty Images theguardian.com

The French government convened crisis talks on Sunday after one of the most violent days of unrest in years left state buildings burned, hundreds of shops looted and more than 2,000 people arrested across the country. President Emmanuel Macron, who leaves office next spring, prepared to address the nation on Sunday night after writing on social media that there is 'no place for violence' in France.

The violence followed four weeks of street marches and school barricades that began as a pupils' demand for more teachers and repairs to decrepit schools. On Saturday, tens of thousands of parents, teachers and grandparents marched peacefully through Paris and other major cities over the cost of living and public services. But separate mobile groups caught police off guard in Paris, Bordeaux, Nice and Marseille, barricading streets, torchching cars and clashing with gendarmes, while masked looters used the chaos to smash shopfronts. In Paris, police recorded a record 855 arrests in a single night; some of the looters seen running through the streets with clothes and shoeboxes appeared to be children, after masked adult men had broken the windows for them.

Politicians on both left and right demanded the resignation of interior minister Laurent Nuñez, and the government appeared to have been surprised by the scale of what unfolded. The sharpest account came from Limoges, where rioters stormed and burned the 19th-century town hall. Mayor Guillaume Guérin said the attackers 'were not demonstrators that defend causes' but 'people organised for war', telling a caretaker he would be killed and elected officials they would burn. Guérin said municipal police present in numbers ran out of ammunition by mid-afternoon and could no longer hold the line — a situation he called 'a colossal failure of the state'.

The Paris deputy mayor Lamia El Aaraje said the capital had seen 'a level of violence that we have never seen before'. Near one burning car in Paris, graffiti read 'introduction to civil war'.