Clashes erupted in Paris on Saturday as a mass march over school funding and soaring living costs drew to a close, a week after widespread rioting and looting across France. More than 400,000 people rallied across the country, mounting a fresh challenge to President Emmanuel Macron's government, the Associated Press reported. The Paris march began peacefully, but near its endpoint at Porte de Vincennes some protesters threw projectiles while police fired volleys of tear gas and used water cannons to disperse people.

Source: Associated Press via Messenger Newspapers, Oct 24, 2026

In Paris, demonstrators set fire to rubbish bins at the end of the procession at Porte de Vincennes, and police responded with tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades, with tear gas shrouding the street in a thick fog, Sweden Herald reported, citing TT and AFP. Pictures from Marseille, France's second-largest city, showed fires burning in several areas, and police used tear gas against crowds in Lyon, Lille and Toulouse, according to AFP reporting carried by Sweden Herald.

Source: Sweden Herald (TT/AFP), Oct 24, 2026

The Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 410,000, including 110,000 in Paris. The central trade union organisation CGT said 800,000 people demonstrated across the country, 250,000 of them in Paris — a claim reported by Sweden Herald; the two sets of figures are the official count and the organisers' count and they differ widely, as they often do at French demonstrations. Authorities had confined the capital's march to the city's south-eastern edge, from Porte d'Italie to Porte de Vincennes, keeping protesters away from central neighbourhoods hit by last weekend's destruction. After reaching the authorised endpoint, some demonstrators tried to continue toward Place de la Nation, but police blocked their path, French media reported via AP.

Source: Associated Press via EuropeSays, Oct 24, 2026

Elsewhere in France, police used tear gas in Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand and Strasbourg and water cannons in Nice and Nantes, French media reported. In Marseille, officers fired tear gas during clashes with several dozen people near the march's endpoint. The Paris prosecutor's office said 64 people had been arrested in connection with Saturday's demonstration in Paris and 40 placed in police custody, including six minors; most arrests concerned suspected weapons offences or participation in a group preparing violence or property damage, the office said.

Source: Associated Press via Messenger Newspapers, Oct 24, 2026

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had announced a nationwide deployment of up to 70,000 officers, backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannons, and warned on Saturday that authorities would not tolerate any violence or disturbances of public order. Earlier in the day, by early afternoon, 135 people had been arrested nationwide and officials had reported no major incident by midday — the clashes in the capital came as the marches ended. AP reported the unrest is testing Macron's authority in the final months of his presidency before voters choose his successor in May, and that the far-right National Rally has accused his government of failing to protect the public.