PARIS — French prosecutors have opened an investigation for 'attempted murder of persons vested with public authority' after a petrol bomb was thrown at security forces during Saturday's protest in Paris, prosecutors told AFP on Sunday.
Source: AFP, Nov 1, 2026
The investigation follows the earlier development Awaaz Punjab reported on Saturday, when about 320,000 people protested across France in a third consecutive weekend of youth-led demonstrations over living costs and education, and clashes erupted in Paris and some other cities as the marches ended.
The Paris police prefecture said several hundred rioters had attacked security forces with projectiles, including a Molotov cocktail. 'Explosive devices were thrown at around fifteen gendarmes as well as police officers,' the prosecutor's office said on Sunday. Gendarmes are military police officers who are part of the French armed forces.
Images showed a homemade incendiary device exploding at the feet of a security officer in eastern Paris. An assessment of the injured was ongoing, prosecutors said, adding that the reported injuries include second-degree burns. No suspects 'have been arrested at this stage in connection with the incident,' the prosecutor's office said, adding that investigators were working to identify those responsible.
One gendarme set alight in the attack told the French outlet RTL, speaking anonymously, that he could feel his flesh stinging as the flames spread and that the flammable substance felt greasy on his skin, but that he did not suffer injuries serious enough to keep him from returning to work. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described the attack on Saturday evening as an 'attempted murder' against the gendarme and decried an 'extraordinary' level of violence from some rioters.
Source: BritBrief / RTL interview, Nov 1, 2026
What happens next is the prosecutors' investigation: identifying who threw the device, completing the medical assessment of the injured officers, and deciding on charges. The wider protest movement has already called further student action in the coming week and a nationwide strike on November 5, so Paris authorities face both a criminal inquiry and another round of demonstrations at the same time.