Paris prosecutors open attempted-murder probe after incendiary devices thrown at police
Paris prosecutors have opened a formal investigation for "attempted murder of persons vested with public authority" after incendiary devices were thrown at a group of about 15 gendarmes and police officers during protests in the French capital. The probe was launched on Sunday, 1 November 2026, the day after the protests ended. Gendarmes are members of France's police forces who work in both urban and rural areas, and the charge is the French legal term for attacking officers who hold public authority. Injuries in the incident reportedly included second-degree burns, The Guardian reported.
The violence came after a largely peaceful day of demonstrations. An estimated 320,000 people, some of them in Halloween costume, marched across France on Saturday, 31 October, according to The Guardian. That night, violence broke out in Paris as well as in Marseille, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Lyon and Toulouse. More than 770 people were arrested in the aftermath.
France's Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, described the post-protest violence as an "extraordinary" level of violence. Around 70,000 police and gendarmes had been deployed for the youth-led protests, which the Associated Press said were France's third weekend of such demonstrations.
In Germany, more than 100,000 people marched in over 30 cities on the same Saturday. They called for better education and lower living costs, in protests led by the "Gen Z regelt" campaign. In Frankfurt, hooded rioters damaged 17 shops and looted five of them. Hesse state interior minister Roman Poseck said rioters threw missiles there, including petrol bombs. More than 100 of the 1,300 police officers deployed in the city were injured, and 54 suspects aged 13 to 29 were arrested. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said rioters and looters would be identified and held accountable, and that tough penalties must follow.
Youth-led protests were also held in Portugal, where police, some with dogs, cleared protest camps with baton charges. In Switzerland, security forces were attacked with paving stones.
The protests form part of a wider wave. Reuters reported in late October that so-called "Gen Z" protests had swept across European countries including France, Italy, Belgium and Albania. Earlier, in mid-October, Albanian police fired rubber bullets during student protests, and in Tirana they fired a shotgun towards crowds outside the education ministry, Reuters reported.
