Limoges city hall "largely lost" to fire set during France's cost-of-living protests, prefect says; about 400 arrested nationwide

The 19th-century city hall in Limoges, in central France, is "largely lost" after it was set on fire during protests on Saturday, Oct. 17, Haute-Vienne Prefect Maurice Barate told AFP. "The roof has collapsed onto the lower floors, except in the west wing, and two-thirds of the facade have already disappeared," Barate said, calling it a "heritage catastrophe" and a "deliberate act by rioters".

Masked protesters set fire to a police car outside city hall, then broke windows and went inside to start the fire, according to witnesses cited by AFP. The building's bell tower, or campanile, also collapsed, France 3, BFMTV and Le Populaire du Centre reported.

"There is a break-in and arson inside the Limoges town hall. Firefighters are currently responding," Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told reporters earlier in the evening, according to the BBC. He said city hall was "currently on fire," LCI and BFMTV reported. Limoges Mayor Guillaume Guérin said: "It is a monument that is burning, but not the Republic," Radio France's local network ici reported.

Nationwide, Nuñez gave a provisional count of about 400 arrests on Saturday evening, up from 272 the Interior Ministry reported as of 3 p.m. Paris time (9 a.m. ET), according to franceinfo, Ouest-France, the BBC and Reuters. Earlier, a tourism office was set on fire in Lyon, and protesters forced their way into the city halls of Marseille and Lille, AFP reported.

How the fire started

As the Limoges march returned to the city center late Saturday afternoon, about 50 people tried to force the doors of city hall, where police had taken refuge, the local daily Le Populaire du Centre reported. At about 6:15 p.m. Paris time (12:15 p.m. ET), the building's entrance hall caught fire, the paper said. The local news site Actus Limousin (Mesinfos) reported that about 50 people got inside and partly set fire to the ground floor.

Accounts of the timing and the size of the group differ. Le Populaire du Centre and Actus Limousin put the break-in at about 6 p.m. Paris time (noon ET) and the group at about 50 people. TF1 Info, citing AFP, said masked individuals broke in at about 5 p.m. Paris time (11 a.m. ET), and ici reported that several hundred "very young people" set fire to the building and to overturned cars outside at about that time.

AFP's French-language report said the police car burned outside city hall belonged to the municipal police. Police inside the building used tear gas to disperse the crowd outside so firefighters could tackle the blaze, Actus Limousin reported.

How far the fire spread

The fire spread to one wing of the building before reaching the roof, a witness told AFP. France 3 Limousin reported that the flames reached the roof at about 7 p.m. Paris time (1 p.m. ET), and franceinfo said on X at 1:37 p.m. ET that firefighters were working to contain the fire. France 3 said that by 7:40 p.m. Paris time (1:40 p.m. ET) the right-hand gable was "completely destroyed". At about 8 p.m. Paris time (2 p.m. ET), firefighters were trying to keep the flames from engulfing the whole building, AFP reported.

Reports differ on when the bell tower fell. France 3 said the campanile caught fire and collapsed at about 8:30 p.m. Paris time (2:30 p.m. ET). Le Populaire du Centre reported that the roof of the left wing and the belfry collapsed shortly after 8:30 p.m. Paris time, according to AFP's report as carried by RTL. An earlier version of Ouest-France's report put the belfry's collapse at about 9:15 p.m. Paris time (3:15 p.m. ET). BFMTV reported the collapse on X at 3:21 p.m. ET.

Barate told AFP that evening that the building was "largely lost". Ouest-France reported that the wedding hall and civil registry offices were destroyed and that the building's roof frame collapsed. Ici headlined that city hall had been "destroyed by fire". France 3 said the damage from the day in Limoges would probably run to tens of millions of euros; that is the broadcaster's estimate, and no official damage figure had been released as of 4:25 p.m. ET.

Whether the fire was out or under control had not been officially stated as of 4:25 p.m. ET. In its English-language report updated at 4 p.m. ET, AFP said firefighters had been deployed late Saturday to try to contain the blaze. Firefighters were still at the scene, franceinfo reported on X at 4:19 p.m. ET. The prefect's account describes extensive but not total destruction: the roof collapsed except in the west wing, and two-thirds of the facade is gone.

The city hall was built between 1876 and 1883, and its facades, roofs and monumental fountain are listed as historic monuments, ici reported. AFP described it as 143 years old.

Police vehicles, looting and injuries

Reports differ on the number of police vehicles burned. Le Populaire du Centre's summary said four law-enforcement vehicles burned, while the body of the same article said two police cars were set on fire in front of city hall. Actus Limousin reported that protesters attacked four police vehicles before trying to enter the building. France 3 Limousin reported that four police vehicles burned in total during the afternoon; it separately reported that one police car was set on fire on an A20 motorway ramp. Barate told Le Populaire du Centre earlier in the day that four police vehicles had been "damaged or set on fire" in Limoges. Ici said three or four cars were burned on the A20 alone.

Several shops in central Limoges were looted, AFP reported. France 3 Limousin said the FNAC store was stormed but spared, and that the BHV department store was targeted by theft and vandalism. Clashes with police also broke out near the Haute-Vienne prefecture building, with projectiles, fireworks fired like mortars and tear gas, AFP reported.

Barate told Le Populaire du Centre that four members of the security forces were injured in Limoges and that private vehicles were attacked, calling it "acts of gratuitous savagery". He put turnout at 5,500 people at the peak of the protest. That interview was published at 12:58 p.m. ET, before the full extent of the fire was known. Firefighters told France 3 Limousin there were "injuries on both sides" but could not give a number. No deaths had been reported in Limoges as of 4:25 p.m. ET.

Tensions in Limoges began at about 2:30 p.m. Paris time (8:30 a.m. ET), Le Populaire du Centre reported, with clashes near the A20 motorway in the Casseaux area. Barate said police there faced "entirely hooded individuals" throwing projectiles, and that he closed the city-center exits and then sections of the A20. On X at 1:15 p.m. ET, the prefect told people to "absolutely avoid" the city hall area for safety reasons. He said on X at 3:36 p.m. ET that the A20 would stay closed in both directions through the night between interchanges 28 and 36.

Reactions and investigation

Guérin spoke shortly before 9 p.m. Paris time (3 p.m. ET), ici reported. "There are no words to condemn what happened, it is so abject. It is a situation of chaos for the country," he said, according to ici. "They destroyed a building that the people of Limoges love, but they did not destroy public service. It is a monument that is burning, but not the Republic." He said criminal prosecutions would follow and told those responsible, "You will be arrested". The city will file a criminal complaint, ici and AFP reported.

The left-wing opposition group on the city council, Gauche Plurielle, said in a statement that "popular anger can and must never translate into the destruction of our common property," France 3 reported.

No arrests in connection with the Limoges fire, and no statement from the Limoges prosecutor's office, had been reported as of 4:25 p.m. ET. Barate called the fire a "deliberate act by rioters". No charges had been reported.

Wire coverage

AFP reported the Limoges fire at 2:45 p.m. ET in French and at 2:50 p.m. ET in English, and published the prefect's "largely lost" assessment in English at 3:31 p.m. ET, updated at 4 p.m. ET. The Associated Press reported in its updated nationwide story that the Limoges city hall had been set on fire. No Reuters report naming Limoges had been found as of 4:25 p.m. ET; Reuters' French-language live coverage, updated at 2:10 p.m. ET, mentioned damage to the city halls of Marseille and Lille but not Limoges.

Arrests and turnout

At a news conference Saturday evening Paris time, Nuñez said about 400 people had been arrested nationwide, a provisional figure because events were still under way, and that the "very large majority" of those arrested were adults, according to franceinfo, Ouest-France and the BBC. Reuters' French-language service reported the figure as more than 400. Nuñez said more arrests would follow in the coming days, Reuters reported.

That replaces the earlier figure of 272 arrests nationwide, which the Interior Ministry reported as of 3 p.m. Paris time (9 a.m. ET), according to AFP, franceinfo and Ouest-France. At midday Paris time (6 a.m. ET), the minister's office had given a preliminary count of 166 arrests nationwide, according to BFMTV, Reuters and Ouest-France.

Nuñez put turnout at 550,000 people nationwide, including 110,000 in Paris, Reuters and Ouest-France reported. The CGT union and youth organizations estimated nearly 800,000 nationwide, according to Reuters.

In Paris, the police prefecture counted 191 arrests as of 6 p.m. Paris time (noon ET), 90% of them adults, Reuters and Ouest-France reported. Paris arrests count toward the national total, and the figures were issued at different times, so they should not be added together.

Nuñez said 60 members of the security forces had been injured nationwide, two of whom were taken to hospital unconscious, according to the BBC, Reuters and Ouest-France. In Saint-Etienne, a protester's hand was blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, a police source told AFP. Saint-Etienne Mayor Régis Juanico confirmed that a young man "had his hand blown off by a grenade," the BBC reported. Nuñez confirmed the injury but did not say whether a police grenade caused it, Reuters reported. A 22-year-old man died after falling from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Saturday afternoon; the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation into the cause of death and said that "at this stage, no link appears with the demonstrations, but inquiries are continuing," according to Belga and Le Parisien. No deaths linked to the protests had been reported as of 4:25 p.m. ET.

Clashes in several cities

In Paris, police used tear gas at Place de la République before the authorized march began, and later used water cannon. A car and a newspaper kiosk were burned there. The prefecture said several hundred violent people, "mainly from the ultra-left," attacked police there from 1 p.m. Paris time, AFP reported.

The main Paris march set off on time at 2:30 p.m. Paris time toward Place de Clichy despite the clashes, AFP reported. Reuters reported at 3:30 p.m. Paris time that the march was proceeding without incident while violence continued at Place de la République. Franceinfo reported that many other marches, including in Brest, Montpellier, Caen, Rouen and Bayonne, were calm.

Police also fired tear gas in Marseille, Lyon and Strasbourg. In Lyon, police said "hostile individuals" kept firefighters from safely tackling the tourism office fire, the BBC reported. Police also used water cannon in Lyon, AFP reported.

In Bordeaux, the march quickly turned into clashes between radical groups and police, with projectiles thrown and tear gas fired, and rioters entered the offices of the chamber of commerce, AFP journalists reported. The official residence of the Gironde prefect in Bordeaux was later "ransacked," a prefecture spokeswoman said, according to AFP.

In Marseille, protesters forced City Hall's door with security barriers and got into the lobby before police dispersed them, AFP reported. Mayor Benoît Payan called the damage "limited," the BBC reported, citing BFMTV. Payan later said he was demanding accountability for how policing was organized in the city, AFP reported.

In Lille, protesters forced several entrances to City Hall and some got inside and ransacked part of the premises before leaving, AFP reported. Dozens of shops were looted, including in Marseille, Lille, Nice and Paris, AFP journalists reported.

A Marseille municipal police station had windows broken and smoke bombs thrown at it, the city's police prefecture said, according to franceinfo and Reuters. No one was hurt, the prefecture said. Europe 1, citing the prefecture, reported that an arson attempt there was stopped; that detail rests on Europe 1's report alone.

Early Saturday, about 100 masked people blockaded the shared Paris headquarters of broadcasters CNews and Europe 1 and broke windows. About 20 were detained, the Paris prefecture said, according to France 24 and AFP.

What the government says

The Interior Ministry blamed the violence on the far left. "The movement is marked by a very strong mobilisation of far-left elements, whose sole intent is to incite disorder," the ministry said, in an English translation by the BBC. Nuñez's office cited "targeted" violent operations by "hooded individuals" in Paris, Marseille, Rennes, Toulouse and Angers.

On Saturday evening, Nuñez blamed the "ultra-left" for turning protests violent in many cities by "violently attacking police, shops and above all trying to reach public buildings," Reuters reported. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on X that police and gendarmes had faced "violence of extreme intensity" and that "ultra-left groups organized the violence in several French cities," according to Reuters and Ouest-France.

President Emmanuel Macron earlier appealed for "calm" and "respect for people and property," the BBC reported. On Saturday evening he wrote on X that there was "no place for violence in our Republic" and that "those who smashed, attacked prefectures as well as shops, and even looted our town halls will be prosecuted and punished," according to Reuters and the BBC. Nuñez repeated instructions to regional prefects and police to act with "great firmness," his office said, according to Reuters. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin denounced "urban violence of unprecedented gravity" and said he wanted "an extremely firm judicial response," BFMTV reported on X at 4:07 p.m. ET.

More than 10,000 police and gendarmes were deployed nationwide, at least 5,000 of them in Paris, CNEWS reported; that figure rests on CNEWS's report alone.

What protesters say

The movement began last month in high schools in Paris's poorer northern suburbs, over teacher shortages, run-down buildings and police treatment of student protesters, according to Reuters, France 24 and the BBC. It has since widened to fuel prices, public spending and inequality.

The CGT union is demanding "higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services," France 24 reported. "The watchword is stop the high cost of living," CGT leader Sophie Binet said Friday on France Inter, according to Reuters' French service.

Left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized coverage that focused on violence over the "tens of thousands" who marched calmly. "Two worlds, two realities," he wrote on X, as translated by France 24.

A Yellow Vests map listed more than 800 demonstrations planned, the BBC reported. That is an organizer claim and has not been independently verified.

Why it matters

The protests come six months before France's presidential election, AFP noted.

Background, earlier weeks (not Saturday's figures): Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said more than 900 police officers had been injured over the course of the movement. The police watchdog is investigating at least two dozen allegations of police violence. One protester lost a hand after picking up a stun grenade, Reuters reported. Nuñez said stun grenades, suspended during the student protests, could be used Saturday.

This story is developing and will be updated. All figures are as of about 4:25 p.m. ET (10:25 p.m. Paris time) and may change.