Police Vans Speed Through Lyon Hours Before Riots Engulf City Center

A convoy of police vans raced through Lyon with sirens wailing on Saturday morning, October 17, as protesters against the rising cost of living marched through the city chanting “Ah! Ah! Anti-capitalist!” behind a plume of white smoke.

X user @gourmande007bis filmed both scenes before midday. In one clip, four or five vans with flashing blue lights speed down a tree-lined avenue as pedestrians and cyclists wait at a crossing. In the other, a crowd that includes people in yellow vests and one carrying a French flag presses forward as thick smoke rises ahead of them. That morning, police had fired tear gas to break up about 200 people near the Manufacture des Tabacs, then again as an undeclared march set off from Place Guichard toward the Rhône.

The day, called by former yellow vest activists, high school and university students, climate campaigners and farmers, brought 550,000 people onto the streets across France, according to the Interior Ministry. More than 20,000 gathered around Lyon’s Place Bellecour in the early afternoon, the prefecture said, with no organizer or route declared.

What followed was one of the most destructive days the city has seen in years. The tourist office on Place Bellecour, a pavilion dating from 1852, was looted and set on fire while firefighters were kept back for long minutes. Looters then ransacked dozens of shops across the city center, from the Printemps department store to the Confluence mall. Stores were set alight, and windows at city hall were smashed. Mayor Grégory Doucet condemned “unacceptable scenes of violence.”

Regional prefect Etienne Guyot described riots “of a totally unprecedented scale.” He said 100 police officers were injured and 160 people were taken into custody in Lyon. Nationwide, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said more than 2,000 people were arrested and over 600 police, gendarmes and firefighters were hurt.