A protester has died after suffering cardiac arrest during one of France's largest demonstrations in years, which spiraled into riots and looting. The protester collapsed while walking through Boulevard Magenta in Paris and was taken to the Château d'Eau emergency centre but 'died before arrival', a police insider told TF1info.
Half a million march across France
More than half a million people, furious with the spiralling cost of living, marched in roughly 110 places across the country on Saturday. Police said more than 720 people, including 117 minors, were arrested after 'individuals whose sole objective was to commit theft and looting' swept Paris.
As people peacefully protested, black-clad agitators shattered luxury store windowfronts, ransacked shops, lobbed mortar-style fireworks and set wheelie bins and bikes on fire. Hundreds of looters tore through Place de la République in central Paris, smashing the Galeries Lafayette department store, banks and other shops.
Arson attacks hit town halls and offices
The violence was not contained to the capital. A town hall in Limoges, just south of Paris, crumbled after looters broke windows to get inside and set it alight. The flames engulfed a wing of the 1883 building before reaching the roof and causing the bell tower to collapse. A town hall employee watched the building burn in tears, AFP reports. At least 15 people were arrested in connection with the alleged nighttime arson attacks, according to news outlet Ouest France.
In Lille, as officers launched tear gas, rioters snuck into a government building and tipped over a bust of Marianne, a symbol of the Republic. A tourism office in Lyon was also broken into and set on fire by masked rioters, as was a police station in Brest.
Student protests and rising anger
French youth have been marching through streets since late September over the country's creaky, under-funded colleges and lack of teachers. Union Syndicale Lycéenne, a student union organising the protests, said France's school system is the 'result of 10 years of Macronism', referring to outgoing president Emmanuel Macron. On the heels of the teen-led movement, campaigners called on people of all ages furious with France's rising cost of living and fraying social welfare system to join them on Saturday.
Protester Lola, 19, told The Guardian: 'We are fighting because the cost of living is too harsh, because the price of fuel is too high, because high school pupils are being violently attacked and hurt all over the country just for trying to protest and ask for more teachers and decent learning conditions.'
Some social media users have been calling for the revival of the 'yellow vests', the movement which shook France with similar protests against living costs in 2018. But human rights groups feared a repeat of how the police have responded to the student protests in recent weeks. Amnesty International criticised the use of tear gas and stun grenades to disperse minors. Video filmed on September 28 showed a police officer firing a tear-gas grenade at a 14-year-old boy's jaw in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, Val-d'Oise. A boy, 15, had his left hand ripped off after a police stun grenade exploded on October 5, Lille prosecutors quoted by Horizon Actu said.
Macron, after nearly a decade in power, will see his final term in office end in May. He said on Saturday: 'There is no place for violence in our republic. Those who have broken in, attacked the prefectures as well as businesses and looted even our town halls will be prosecuted and punished.'
