France announces nightly curfews 'for as long as necessary' in Paris and
other big cities
[October 21, 2026]
By TOM NOUVIAN
PARIS (AP) — Fresh curfews were being imposed across the city centers of
Paris and Lyon on Tuesday after the first quiet night since France’s
most destructive rioting in years, as Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu
said a “massive” security operation was planned for new protests
Saturday.
Paris police said the curfew in two designated zones — around Place de
la République and the Les Halles shopping district — had restored
“public peace” overnight and would remain in place “for as long as
necessary.” The curfew zones leave out other areas hit on Saturday,
including the Champs-Elysées and the area around the Saint-Lazare train
station and parts of the Rue de Turbigo in central Paris, where
protesters set up barricades and lit fires.
In Lyon, one of France’s largest cities, authorities also renewed a
curfew in the city center from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., saying no disturbances
had been recorded overnight.
Marseille, France’s second-largest city, imposed a curfew for
unaccompanied minors starting Tuesday night. Lecornu said the targeted
curfews “helped keep last night calm.”
Student unions and groups from the “ yellow vest ” movement, whose
protests over fuel prices shook France in 2018 and 2019, have called for
another day of protests Saturday.
Soldiers from Sentinelle, the anti-terrorism operation that has
patrolled French cities since the 2015 Islamic State group attacks, will
take over guarding sensitive sites to free up more police officers and
gendarmes for crowd control, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told
lawmakers Tuesday.
“The deployment (of police forces) for next Saturday will be massive,”
Lecornu told the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament,
without giving figures.
Suspect held over Limoges city hall fire
Police on Tuesday arrested a suspect in the arson attack that charred
the historic city hall in Limoges, in central France, Justice Minister
Gérald Darmanin said, adding that the person was being held in police
custody and may not have acted alone.
French media reported that the suspect was close to radical
environmentalist movements and was on a watchlist of people considered
potential threats to national security. Darmanin declined to comment on
the suspect’s profile, but said far-left groups appeared to have
organized to attack symbols of the state throughout France.
Footage of the 143-year-old building in flames, its bell tower
collapsing, spread widely online over the weekend. U.S. Vice President
JD Vance shared it on X, blaming the unrest on immigration and writing,
“I pray that France, a beautiful country of amazing people, will stop
this madness before more of its landmarks burn.” President Donald Trump,
who also relayed the video, said migrants had “taken over France.”
French officials have instead blamed the violence on far-left groups and
opportunistic looters. At least 2,400 people were arrested after rioters
in cities across France on Saturday clashed with police, set cars on
fire and stormed public buildings, during nationwide protests against
rising living costs and poor conditions in schools.
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Policemen patrol during an overnight curfew in Paris, Tuesday, Oct.
20, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
On Sunday evening, small groups set fire to trash bins, bicycles and
other objects in the streets and looted businesses in Paris, Lyon,
Marseille and other cities.
In Paris on Monday night, a police helicopter circled over Place de
la République overnight, a central point in the weekend clashes,
sweeping the square with a searchlight to check that the curfew was
being respected.
Early Tuesday morning, workers used a crane to remove a giant
fluorescent yellow vest draped over the statue at the center of the
square, then used pressure washers to blast graffiti off the
monument.
Louise Belanger, a volunteer who came to help with the cleanup, said
she still could not apprehend the level of violence. “Normally when
you are 20 you should be optimistic, you should be starting to build
something (...) If you are only anger and violence, what are you
going to do? This is sad for everybody in society,” she said.
Courts promise ‘extremely firm’ response
Speaking in Lille, northern France, Darmanin said 149 people had
been jailed nationwide as of Tuesday at noon. According to the
Justice Ministry, of the roughly 2,400 people arrested since
Saturday, more than 800 have been sent before prosecutors, most of
whom were either put on trial immediately or ordered to appear at a
later hearing.
In Paris alone, about 300 people have been sent before prosecutors
following the Oct. 17 protests, the city prosecutor’s office said in
a statement.
Darmanin said he had asked prosecutors to appeal any sentence they
considered too lenient. “People with no criminal record ending up in
prison for property crimes is extremely rare, if not unheard of,” he
said, arguing that the French justice system will be “extremely
firm.”
In Lille, he said, three men aged 20 to 25 with no criminal record
were each sentenced to 10 months in prison and jailed immediately
for looting a video game store in the city’s old town.
The National Assembly is launching an inquiry into the Oct. 17
violence and the authorities’ policing strategy, its speaker, Yaël
Braun-Pivet, said, with findings expected “by the end of the year.”
Protests continued Tuesday on a smaller scale. Some 400 people,
mostly high school and university students, marched in the western
city of Rennes, and about 750 in Lyon, under pouring rain.
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