Live: Curfews in Paris and other cities helped keep the peace overnight, says French PM

Targeted curfews helped keep peace over night, says French PM

Paris The curfew ordered for parts of Paris ran from 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) Monday to 6:00 am Tuesday. It applied to two areas that were the focus of looting on the weekend: the République square in the centre-east of the capital, and the very central Chatelet-les-Halles zone where many shops are located. Additionally, a ban on public gatherings taking place in those two zones came into effect from 8:00 pm on Monday.

LyonFrance's third-biggest city of Lyon had a curfew for its very central zone, where a tourist office was torched in the protests on Saturday. The ban on public movement in the zone applied from 9:00 pm Monday to 6:00 am Tuesday. A public-gathering ban was also in force in parts of Lyon from 6:00 pm Monday.

NiceNice, the biggest city on the French Riviera, had a curfew for its centre running from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am, under order of the mayor. But its curfew applied only to unaccompanied minors.

Lille and northern townsLille, France's fourth-biggest metropolitan area, and the towns of Douai, Wattignies and Denain, all located in the north of France, declared curfews for unaccompanied minors from 8:00 pm Monday to 6:00 am Tuesday. The measures applied only to certain zones.

As thousands of French shop owners reel from the weekend violence and looting, listings of apparently stolen items have been popping up online.The French government has asked major second-hand marketplaces such as Vinted, eBay and Amazon to crack down on suspicious adverts.

Mass protests in France are often tainted by violence on the fringes of otherwise peaceful marches, leading to clashes with police. Saturday’s unrest recalled the riots that followed the fatal police shooting of a teenager in 2023, when authorities imposed local curfews, and violence during the Yellow Vest movement that began in 2018 over fuel prices and broader economic grievances.

US President Donald Trump used the protests roiling France to score some quick political points Monday, as the upcoming midterm elections force his Republican party to face strong headwinds. At a rally in Kansas, the US president launched into a lengthy tirade about France, which he said was being "conquered, looted, and burnt to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists.""

And we're not going to let that happen to this country," he added. While speaking with reporters previously in the day, Trump recalled an exchange with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron: "I told him a long time ago, you're making a big mistake in France. You're letting everybody from the world come in... Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon."

Earlier Monday, the 80-year-old president wrote on his Truth Social platform: "The migrants have taken over France. They must CLOSE THE BORDERS, FAST!"

Paris police issued an overnight curfew on Monday in two areas of the French capital, after a weekend marred by France’s worst rioting in years that targeted city halls, other public buildings and thousands of businesses across the country. The order aims to protect “people and property from the violence and looting,” the Paris police statement said.