France counts cost of violent protests as 1,800 arrested

Violent protests across France over rising living costs and deteriorating public services resulted in one death following a cardiac arrest in Paris. According to the Times of India, the unrest left one demonstrator dead and more than 500 police officers injured. The interior minister reported that nearly 1,800 people were arrested during the demonstrations. While more than half a million people participated in nationwide protests, most were peaceful, according to Gulf News.

The demonstrations involved widespread destruction, including the looting of luxury shops in Paris, Bordeaux, and Marseille, where a Rolex store and an Hermès boutique were targeted. Gulf News reports that public buildings were also damaged. On Sunday morning, Parisians found streets filled with litter and broken glass following a day of chaos, as reported by Euronews.

The unrest spread beyond France to Belgium and Italy on Saturday. In Belgium, clashes occurred in Brussels and Liège, with Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin describing the violence in Brussels as an organized attempt to destabilize society. In Italy, masked demonstrators set fire to barricades and threw stones and paving blocks at riot police in central Milan.

Brief written by urgent.news from Punch, Euronews, Times of India, Gulf News — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.