COPY LINK

For members

RIOTS

IN NUMBERS: The impact of riots and looting across France

From the cars torched to the value of damage to shops, plus arrests made and people injured - here is the latest totals from the rioting that gripped France for a week.

Published: 3 July 2023 12:02 CEST
Updated: 5 July 2023 11:50 CEST

IN NUMBERS: The impact of riots and looting across France

Burnt cars line the street at the foot of the Pablo Picasso estate in Nanterre, west of Paris on June 30, 2023 (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP)

French media have warned that the damage from riots over the killing of Nahel M by a French police officer could exceed that of the 2005 riots, which flared for almost three weeks.

In the week following Nahel’s death on June 27th, thousands of trash bins, cars, and buildings were set ablaze across France as people took to the streets, primarily in France’s poorer and deprived neighbourhoods.

Hear the team at The Local discussing all aspects of the recent riots in the latest episode of the Talking France podcast. Download here or listen on the link below

45,000

Tens of thousands of police officers have been mobilised during each night of rioting. On Thursday night, 40,000 police and gendarmes were mobilised, and this was raised to 45,000 over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday nights.

10,000

Approximately 10,000 trash bins have been set on fire across the country in almost one week of rioting.

5,000

Cars, particularly those parked on the street, are often targeted during protests and mobilisations in France – like the Yellow Vest movement.

As of Sunday, 5,000 cars had been burned since the start of rioting in France. In comparison, over the course of three weeks worth of rioting in 2005, France saw approximately 10,000 cars burned.

3,931

There have been 3,931 riot-related arrests, mostly on Friday and Saturday nights. The situation appeared to be calming, with 72 people arrested on Monday night and 16 on Tuesday night.

Of those, 380 have been remanded in custody – typically those accused of the most serious offences.

90%

Contrary to the myths pushed by the far-right that the rioters were ‘immigrants’, 90 percent of those arrested were French nationals, according to the interior ministry.

1,000

At least 1,000 buildings have been burned or looted – from public buildings such as town halls and schools, to shops, banks and tabacs.

Police officers stand guard in front of a damaged fast food restaurant at the shopping mall Rosny 2 in Rosny-sous-Bois, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, on June 30, 2023 (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP)

Buildings such as mairies and police stations – which are seen as ‘symbols of the state’ have been targeted by arsonists and vandals.

On Friday, in Montargis, located in the Loiret département in central France, three buildings were torched, including the Mirabeau pharmacy which collapsed due to the fire. As of Monday, approximately 250 police stations had also been targeted.

In addition to arson attacks, many shops have been targeted by looters who have smashed windows, trashed the interiors and stolen goods.

700

France’s ministry of interior reported that about 700 members of the security forces had been injured since the start of rioting, although no serious injuries have been reported.

It is not clear how many members of the public have been injured. In French Guiana, a man was killed by a stray bullet, which was reportedly fired by protesters, according to local authorities. An investigation has been opened.

220

French President Emmanuel Macron met with 220 mayors of towns affected by violence and rioting on Monday.

The planned meeting follows an attack on the home of Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun of the town L’Haÿ-les-Roses, a southern suburb of Paris. The mayor himself had been staying in the town hall when rioters rammed a car into his house and set it on fire. Jeanbrun’s wife and two children were able to escape through the garden.

As of Friday, 30 buses in the greater Paris Île-de-France region had been burned or damaged. 12 of those buses were set on fire with Molotov cocktails on Thursday night at a bus depot in Aubervilliers, north of Paris. Another 14 buses were burned south-east of Paris, at a depot in Provins.

Le dépôt de bus ratp incendié à Aubervilliers pic.twitter.com/RJCrBf0DWO

— Sébastian Compagnon (@SebCompagnon) June 30, 2023

A tram was also set alight, in eastern Lyon, amid rioting on Thursday night.

As a result, buses and trams across the country stopped running after 9pm, and over the weekend, in Marseille, buses stopped running at 7pm.

€1 billion

The business group Medef estimated that there could be more than €1 billion worth of damage to businesses. On top of that, regional public transport authorities for Paris estimated about €20 million in damage to the transport infrastructure.

In comparison, the 2005 riots saw €204 million worth of damage over three weeks.

€1.3 million

As of Tuesday morning, this was total that had been donated to the family of the police officer who shot Nahel M, in a fundraiser on the website GoFundMe. The fundraiser was started by Jean Messiha, a French economist known for having far-right views and supporting Éric Zemmour’s campaign.

Meanwhile, the official fundraiser for Nahel’s mother stood at approximately €350,000 on Tuesday morning. Politicians, such as France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, have spoken out against the fundraiser for the police officer, noting that it does not help to “contribute to peace”.

Member comments

Anonymous - 4 July 2023 at 04:48 CEST

Protest yes, however the needless destruction is appalling. Any sympathy for the reason for the protest, quickly dissipates with riots and needless destruction.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.