French police arrest 1,800 after violent clashes and looting mar protests

PARIS — Police arrested at least 1,800 people across France after violent groups clashed with officers and looted shops during nationwide demonstrations that drew hundreds of thousands of people who denounced rising living costs and poor conditions in schools.

Authorities said masked groups on Saturday set fires and attacked public buildings, including city halls, in several cities.

In Limoges, a city in central France, flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall, causing its roof to collapse. Haute-Vienne prefect Maurice Barate told LCI television that the fire was deliberately set and nearly destroyed the building. The fire was under control Sunday.

French President Emmanuel Macron will hold an emergency meeting with top government officials on Sunday afternoon, before addressing the nation at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET), according to his office.

“The right to protest is a fundamental right. Deliberately and collectively sowing disorder through violence is not,” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez wrote on X, pointing to the lootings of hundreds of businesses in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Nice, Limoges and other cities.

Nuñez and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu attributed some of the violence to “radical far-left groups” and said others later joined to loot.

Paris police…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business