Business owners and shopkeepers across France are now assessing the damage after widespread looting on Saturday turned cost‑of‑living protests into violent break‑ins, with masked individuals forcing entry into stores and stealing goods.
Authorities reported looting in numerous cities, including Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Nice, Limoges, and Paris.
Targets included major supermarket chains such as Carrefour, Franprix, and Monoprix, together with luxury boutiques, bars, and vape shops.
Dressed mostly in black, masked groups roamed the streets, shattering shop windows and forcing metal shutters open before ransacking shelves.
Sunday morning revealed shattered glass and debris across the streets as Parisians left their apartments to confront the scene of devastation.
Alexandre Bompard, Chairman and CEO of the Carrefour Group, said on Sunday that a total of 50 shops had been targeted, including 19 Carrefour convenience stores and supermarkets, with affected locations in Paris, Rennes, Lille, and Bordeaux, among others. “My thoughts are also with the 1,500 shops belonging to all the other retail chains and with all the shopkeepers who have suffered the same unacceptable violence,” he added. “The destruction will have considerable human and economic consequences. Dozens of employees at our franchise partners will be forced onto short‑time working, and the cost of repairs will run to well over ten million euros.”
One store owner near the Place de la République, whose shop was wrecked by rioters, told Brut that he had invested all his savings in the business and felt he had lost everything. “I don’t know how I’ll get by or how I’ll live with my family,” he said. A neighbour has set up a fundraiser to help him recover.
Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire pledged full support to affected businesses in the capital and announced the creation of an emergency task force. “Its role will be to assess the damage, support affected shopkeepers, and assist them with administrative and insurance procedures,” he said. “You bring Paris to life every day. Today, it’s Paris’ turn to stand by your side.”
Looters assault Euronews crew
A Euronews crew were assaulted by looters in Paris on Saturday, near the Place de la République, while reporting on the unrest.
The crew were making their way to another location when they were confronted by masked individuals looting a nearby Intermarché Express supermarket. “We were standing on Boulevard de Magenta, not far from a supermarket that was being looted by young people, young adults, teenagers. When they saw we were filming, they started hitting my cameraman and attempted to take his microphone and they encircled us,” said Estelle Nilsson‑Julien, Euronews’ Paris correspondent. “They then pushed him against the wall and started hitting and punching him. They also hit me. They punched him in the face, but because he was wearing goggles and a mask, he was not harmed,” she added.
A separate march along Boulevard de Clichy toward the Place de Clichy on the other side of Paris remained peaceful, another Euronews journalist on the ground reported.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said in an update on Sunday that more than 600 police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters had been injured on Saturday, with over 2,000 people arrested.
