France: almost 1,000 arrested after more mass protests, but no repeat of last week's riots

On Saturday 24 October 2026, further large demonstrations took place in many French cities. According to Polish media citing the French authorities, hundreds of thousands of people took part. In the evening, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said almost 1,000 people had been detained, adding that the number would rise.

Scale of the protests and police response

The authorities deployed 70,000 police officers to secure the demonstrations, 10,000 more than a week earlier. This followed an admission by officials that they had underestimated the scale of the threat during the riots of 17 October. Mr Nuñez spoke of the need to react "extremely, extremely quickly".

Most of Saturday's demonstration in Paris passed peacefully. Towards the end, police clashed with small groups of masked people, against whom tear gas and water cannon were used. Clashes also broke out in Lyon, Bordeaux and Grenoble, and tear gas was used in places including Clermont-Ferrand, Lille and Nice. All demonstrations in Nice were banned on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, by early afternoon, Mr Nuñez had spoken of 135 people detained. In some cases, preventive searches turned up items that could be used as weapons. The evening figure is therefore many times higher than the afternoon one.

Background: last week's riots

The previous Saturday, 17 October, was one of the most serious waves of violence in France in years. The protests concerned rising living costs and deteriorating public services, and some demonstrations turned into riots. Public buildings were attacked and there was looting. In Limoges a historic town hall burned down, and in Marseille protesters forced their way into the town hall. According to Polish media, more than 1,800 people were detained after those events; other reports give lower figures (around 1,200), which reflects the data being released at different times.

Later figures on the number of people detained and any charges were not yet known when the sources were published. The French authorities also said that noticeably fewer road protest actions (such as blockades) were reported on Saturday than a week earlier.

What next

The authorities are trying to avoid a repeat of 17 October. For now, the sources contain no information on further planned protest dates or on changes affecting transport or tourism that would concern travellers from the UK.