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France imposes curfews in Paris and other cities after weekend riots

Police restricted movement in Place de la République and Les Halles, and mayors curbed minors' movements in Lille, Nice and elsewhere, after more than 2,500 arrests and damage to thousands of businesses.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 20 Oct 2026, 10:24

Demonstrators stand in drifting tear gas at Place de la République in Paris during the October 2026 riots. — Demonstrators gather as tear gas drifts across Place de la République in Paris on 17 October 2026. Jorge Jaramillo / JJxFile.com, CC BY-SA 4.0

At a glance

Paris curfew runs from 11pm to 6am in Place de la République and Les Halles, with gatherings banned from 8pm.
More than 2,500 people have been arrested since the weekend, and nearly 1,000 police officers were injured.
The unrest began over school conditions and widened into protests over living costs and public services.

France has imposed overnight curfews in parts of Paris and several other cities after a weekend of rioting and looting that led to more than 2,500 arrests.

In Paris, police ordered an 11pm to 6am curfew in Place de la République and the Les Halles shopping district, and banned gatherings from 8pm. Both areas saw clashes and looting at the weekend.

Local curfews for under-18s took effect in several northern cities including Lille, running from 8pm to 6am for two days, while Nice imposed a night curfew for minors from 9pm, the Associated Press reported.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the measures would be "very limited" and "localised", and that mayors would be empowered to impose curfews where needed. He did not rule out a state of emergency.

The unrest began with student demands for better school conditions and widened into protests over fuel prices, living costs and public services. About 550,000 people joined demonstrations across the country on Saturday, according to the BBC.

Masked groups attacked police, set cars and bicycles alight and broke into public buildings. A fire largely destroyed the 19th-century town hall in Limoges. The chambers of commerce said more than 2,000 businesses were directly affected, with damage estimated in the tens of millions of euros.

Nearly 1,000 police officers were injured, and one protester lost a hand to a police grenade, AFP reported.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez offered to resign after acknowledging that police had lost control in some cities. President Emmanuel Macron refused the resignation, and blamed "insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals" for the violence.

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 67 people had been jailed and dozens of criminal cases opened. About 200 investigators are examining CCTV footage to identify organisers, the BBC reported.

Lecornu said the government would fund the restoration of damaged areas and introduce a law to recover the cost from those responsible. He also announced partial unemployment payments for people unable to work because of the unrest.

The United States, China and Germany advised their citizens to avoid affected areas. Looted goods appeared on resale platforms; Vinted said listings of stolen items were banned and that its teams were removing them.

Sources & further reading

BBC News Bangla: rioting across France and curfews in Paris and other cities Hindustan Times: France steps up security after worst riots in years

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The Dhaka Stock Exchange building in Motijheel, Dhaka. File photo. Ifteebd10 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has published rules allowing large companies to list on the country's stock exchanges without an initial public offering, reopening a route that had been closed to private firms for 16 years.

The Direct Listing of Securities on the Stock Exchange Rules, 2026 appeared in an additional issue of the Bangladesh Gazette on 18 October and took effect on publication, the regulator said in a press release.

Under the rules, eligible companies list by selling shares already held by sponsors and early investors instead of issuing new shares to raise capital. Sellers must offer at least 10 per cent of the company's paid-up capital.

The route is open to companies wholly or majority owned by the government and to firms in which the state holds at least 10 per cent. Companies at least 51 per cent owned by foreign shareholders also qualify.

Scheduled banks, financial institutions and insurers with at least Tk 500 crore in net assets can apply, as can companies with annual turnover of at least Tk 1,000 crore. Stock exchanges and depositories are eligible too.

Applicants must have at least five years of commercial production behind them, profit from core operations in each of the last two financial years and positive cash flow from operations. Companies with accumulated losses are excluded.

Sponsors and directors selling shares cannot be loan defaulters, and they must keep at least 30 per cent of the company after listing.

A merchant bank will set a reference price from the company's assets, liabilities and earnings. The minimum offer price must be at least 25 per cent below that reference, and investors cannot bid below the floor during the first two days.

Direct listing was introduced in 2006. Controversy over the 2010 listings of Khulna Power Company and Ocean Containers led the regulator to limit the route to state-owned firms, and no state company has used it since. Five private companies have listed directly: Shinepukur Ceramics in 2008, Navana CNG in 2009, Khulna Power and Ocean Containers in 2010, and ACI Formulations.

The commission is betting that the route will draw large, established companies to a market that has not seen a new IPO in more than two years, and give founders a way to sell part of their stake without taking the company public through a full offer.

How much difference the rules make will depend on implementation, including how strictly the commission screens applicants, verifies their accounts, sets reference prices and enforces the ownership conditions.

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The migrant workers' lounge at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. — The migrant workers' lounge at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, photographed at its inauguration in November 2024. File photo. Press Information Department (PID), Government of Bangladesh

Japan will begin recruiting workers from Bangladesh on 1 April 2027 under an agreement signed on 17 October, the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment said.

The memorandum is known as the ESD-MOC, or Memorandum of Cooperation on Employment Skills Development. The ministry's secretary signed for Bangladesh. Japan was represented by its ministries of justice, foreign affairs, and health, labour and welfare, along with the National Police Agency.

The ministry said the initial term is five years and will be renewed automatically for a further five, for a total of ten years.

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The announcement did not say how many workers Japan will take or which sectors will recruit first. The ministry described the agreement as a framework for cooperation in sending and receiving workers, with the operational details to be settled as it is carried out.

The ministry said it expects the agreement to strengthen relations between the two countries and widen opportunities for Bangladesh's skilled workers.