France Turns Into a Battlefield: Department Stores Looted, Government Offices Set Ablaze

[Anchor]

Protests initially sparked by demands to improve educational environments are spreading, turning places across France into battlefields. During large-scale weekend rallies, some radical protesters looted department stores and even set fire to government buildings and various other locations.

Reporter Gwak Sang-eun has the details.

[Reporter]

A group with their faces covered smash the glass windows of a luxury brand store and rush inside.

Sweeping through the shop, they steal goods indiscriminately and flee.

The looters even barged into a department store staffed with security personnel.

Store employees watch helplessly as the looting unfolds.

On Saturday, October 17, large-scale demonstrations were held in Paris and other major French cities.

Major labor unions and other groups held protests against high inflation to join student demonstrations demanding better educational environments, bringing crowds of citizens out into the streets in solidarity.

[Laura / Protester: Housing costs are too high. And gas prices are too high as well, which is why we came out to fight like this.]

An estimated 550,000 people participated according to police estimates, while organizers claimed 800,000 attendees. As the protests intensified, violent clashes broke out everywhere.

Protesters forcibly broke into media outlets and government offices, and a historic 143-year-old town hall in a small municipality was engulfed in flames, destroying more than two-thirds of the building.

Some participants even cut CCTV cables and systematically looted shops and department stores.

Authorities reported that approximately 2,400 people were arrested nationwide, and nearly 1,000 people, including police officers, were injured.

In an emergency televised address to the nation, President Macron announced plans to set up a negotiation table with this week's rally participants while warning of stern punishments for illegal acts such as looting.

However, protests protesting high inflation and housing shortages continue in Italy, Belgium, and Spain, spreading the chaos across all of Europe.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-jin, Sources: X (formerly Twitter) '@theinformant_x', X (formerly Twitter) '@WarMonltor', X (formerly Twitter) '@Mrgunsngear')

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