Historic 143-year-old town hall set ablaze during protests in France

Paris: Protests against the rising cost of living and government policies turned violent in France, with a historic town hall in the French city of Limoges suffering extensive damage after masked demonstrators set it on fire on Saturday. Police arrested more than 1,000 people across the country in connection with the violence.

Smaller protests were also held in Belgium, Portugal and Italy on Saturday amid rising living costs across Europe. In Albania, demonstrators took to the streets over allegations of government corruption, unemployment and poor educational standards.

A senior official told AFP that the fire at the Limoges town hall was a disaster for the city's heritage, accusing protesters of deliberately setting the building ablaze. The roof collapsed onto the lower floors, except in the western section, while two-thirds of the building's exterior was destroyed by fire.

Witnesses said a group of masked demonstrators first set fire to a police car outside the town hall before smashing windows, entering the building and starting the blaze. Firefighters were deployed to extinguish the fire late on Saturday.

US Vice-President JD Vance blamed immigration for the violence during the unrest in France. He also shared a video showing the Limoges town hall on fire.

“Western liberals brought people from Third World countries to France and other nations in the name of diversity and compassion. They ignored fundamental questions of integration and assimilation. They were warned that this would lead to the current situation, but they did not listen,” Vance wrote on X.

“I pray that France ends this madness before more historic monuments are burned down,” he added.

Hundreds of thousands of people took part in peaceful marches across several French cities. However, some violent groups attacked public institutions, looted shops and supermarkets, and targeted police vehicles and officers.

In Marseille, protesters dressed in black broke into the town hall, scrawled offensive words on the walls and vandalised the premises. In Lyon, demonstrators also set fire to a tourist office.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said around 550,000 people had participated in protests across France. However, the CGT trade union estimated the turnout at 800,000, Reuters reported. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said around 1,200 people had been arrested during the protests.

During and after the demonstrations, groups of young people took to city streets, clashed with police, set fires and broke into closed shops to steal goods.

Dozens of shops were looted in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lille, Toulouse and Strasbourg. Supermarkets, pharmacies, luxury boutiques, clothing stores, opticians, cosmetics shops and consumer electronics retailers were among the businesses targeted.

President Emmanuel Macron's government has been taking tough measures to rein in France's national debt while addressing the cost-of-living crisis. Opposition groups, which have brought down two prime ministers over budget plans in the past two years, have remained unwilling to compromise.

Public anger has intensified in recent months as petrol and food prices have risen sharply.

With presidential elections scheduled for next year, Lecornu blamed far-left groups and criminals for the violence, saying the government would not be intimidated by the unrest.