Fire Blazes in Paris Street as Second Night of Unrest Grips Châtelet

A fire burned in the middle of an intersection in the Châtelet district of central Paris on Sunday night, October 18, as unrest continued in the French capital for a second day after nationwide protests against the rising cost of living.

The footage, filmed by irelia, opens with a loud crash of metal as barriers are dragged into the road. Flames rise from the asphalt in front of a clothing store and a restaurant, and a crowd of people, many dressed in dark clothes with their hoods up, film the blaze on their phones. A person on the right holds up a flare billowing pink smoke, while a car slowly makes its way past the fire and through the crowd.

Clashes and looting went on through the evening around Châtelet-Les Halles, one of the busiest shopping and transport hubs in Paris. Firefighters worked to put out a burning barricade there while riot police charged to break up groups of protesters. The CRS 8, a police unit that specializes in urban violence, was deployed in the capital again, after tensions flared on Sunday afternoon around the Place de la République. Stores including Louis Vuitton and the BHV department store were targeted in central Paris, and police counted at least five stores looted in the city, among them a clothing store, an electronics store in Belleville and two supermarkets. “They smashed up shops, we didn’t really understand why,” one man said. Paris police headquarters reported 108 arrests in the city on Sunday, 66 of them in the evening, and incidents continued late into the night.

The violence followed the national day of mobilization on Saturday, October 17, when the Interior Ministry said 550,000 people marched across France. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said more than 2,000 people were arrested nationwide that day and more than 600 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters were injured, while Paris alone saw 855 arrests, a record. In Limoges, the historic city hall was set on fire, and in Mulhouse, prosecutors said a 17-year-old girl permanently lost her left eye on the sidelines of the protests and opened an investigation by the police watchdog. President Emmanuel Macron was due to address the nation at 8 p.m. on Sunday.

Some of the young protesters distanced themselves from the looting. “We’re a high school movement that’s here to demand real things,” one teenager said. “So when we see rioters joining our groups and causing chaos, we can only be sad.”