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France extends curfews after riots, with more than 2,500 arrested

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the overnight restrictions will continue where needed after France's worst street violence in years, which left more than 3,000 businesses looted and 67 people jailed.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 20 Oct 2026, 17:20

Riot police stand outside a looted shop in Paris on 17 October 2026, during the unrest that began with protests over school conditions and the cost of living. Jorge Jaramillo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

France will keep night-time curfews in place on Tuesday and extend them wherever needed, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said, after weekend riots that damaged public buildings, looted shops and led to more than 2,500 arrests.

Lecornu said the targeted restrictions introduced in Paris and other cities on Monday had helped keep the night calm, and that new curfews would be decided "where the situation requires it". Parts of Paris, Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux and Nice have been placed under curfew.

The unrest began on Saturday, when largely peaceful student protests over poor conditions in high schools and the rising cost of living turned into some of the worst street violence France has seen in years. More than 3,000 businesses were hit by looting, according to preliminary estimates, and 67 people have already been jailed. Officials said the violence came six months before the presidential election.

The government is also under pressure to respond to the cost-of-living complaints behind the protests. President Emmanuel Macron, on a tour of the Gulf, secured an extra 200,000 tonnes of diesel a month from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, his office said. Added to 95,000 tonnes previously agreed with Saudi Arabia, the shipments amount to about 10 per cent of France's monthly consumption.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez offered to resign on Sunday, saying police had lost control during the unrest. Macron rejected the offer. Lecornu has called emergency meetings, including talks with major social media platforms, and will meet trade unions on Wednesday and political parties on Thursday.

The violence has injured demonstrators as well as damaging property. In Mulhouse, a 17-year-old girl lost an eye, and in Saint-Etienne a 17-year-old boy lost a hand to a grenade, according to reports cited by AFP.

The political reaction has been sharp across the spectrum. Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen called the unrest a wake-up call that exposed a deep crisis of authority, while US President Donald Trump said the trouble was caused by immigration rather than schools.

Several countries, including the United States, China and Germany, have issued travel advisories for their citizens in France. Police said the night from Monday to Tuesday passed without major incidents, but new protests have been called for the coming weekend.

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NEXT STORY Politics

President accepts State Minister Ishraque Hossain's resignation over gun video

President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir accepted the resignation in a gazette notification on Tuesday, a day after the Dhaka-6 MP stepped down amid criticism of him carrying a licensed firearm during an anti-drug drive.

ScrollBeat Desk20 Oct 2026, 18:08Open this article

Ishraque Hossain, centre, then state minister for liberation war affairs, meets ministry officials at the Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka on 18 February 2026. He resigned from the post on 19 October 2026 and the President accepted it the next day. Press Information Department (PID), Government of Bangladesh

President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has accepted the resignation of Ishraque Hossain as state minister for liberation war affairs, a day after the Dhaka-6 lawmaker announced he was stepping down.

The Cabinet Division issued a gazette notification on Tuesday saying the resignation took effect immediately. Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Gani signed the notification by order of the President.

Ishraque announced the decision at a press conference at the National Press Club on Monday, saying he had met Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and asked to be released from his ministerial duties so he could concentrate on clearing drugs from Dhaka-6 and nearby areas.

The resignation followed criticism of his conduct during an anti-drug drive near the railway line in Dhaka's Gandaria area on Saturday. A video posted on his own Facebook page showed him getting out of a vehicle with a loudspeaker and a pistol, then chasing a group of people and at one point pointing the weapon towards them.

Ishraque defended the action, saying he briefly raised his licensed firearm in self-defence after warnings of a possible attack, and that he holds a valid licence for the weapon. He also said the way the operation was reported had put the ruling BNP in an awkward position.

Before his announcement he had disputed media reports that the prime minister had told him to step down, calling them unverified and false. He then confirmed the decision in a Facebook post on Monday morning. Dhaka police had said they would review the video.

The son of the late BNP leader and Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Ishraque won Dhaka-6 in this year's election with 78,850 votes and took charge of the liberation war affairs ministry on 17 February.

He said he would keep up his anti-drug work as a BNP activist rather than as a minister and continue the drives until Dhaka-6 is free of drugs.

NEXT STORY Business

China's economy grows 4.5% as AI-related exports beat forecasts

Third-quarter GDP rose from 4.3% in the previous quarter and slightly exceeded an AFP poll of economists. Weak domestic demand and a property slump still weighed on the world's second-largest economy.

ScrollBeat Desk20 Oct 2026, 17:44Open this article

Containers stacked at Shanghai's Yangshan deep-water port in 2013. China's September exports were lifted by demand for electronics and AI-related equipment. Bruno Corpet / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

China's economy expanded by 4.5 per cent in the year to September, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, slightly above the 4.4 per cent expected in an AFP poll of economists and faster than the 4.3 per cent recorded in the previous quarter.

Growth over the first nine months reached 4.6 per cent, putting Beijing within reach of its target of 4.5 to 5 per cent for 2026 without a large new stimulus package.

Factory output did much of the work. Industrial production rose 5.5 per cent year on year in September, up from 5.2 per cent in August, while retail sales grew 1.1 per cent, their fastest pace since March but still far behind production.

Exports jumped by more than a third in September, helped by foreign demand for electronics, AI-related equipment and cars. China is on course for another record trade surplus that would exceed last year's $1.2 trillion.

The picture was weaker in investment. Fixed-asset investment fell 7.2 per cent in January-September, property investment dropped 20.6 per cent and infrastructure spending remained soft, the Guardian reported.

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Duncan Wrigley of Pantheon Macroeconomics said high-tech manufacturing continued to outperform traditional sectors as China moved up the value chain. Zhiwei Zhang of Pinpoint Asset Management cautioned that momentum remained subdued once inflation was taken into account, and said the stronger headline figure could make Beijing less likely to shift policy in the fourth quarter.