A march against rising living costs in Paris ended in chaos on Saturday, October 31, 2026, when Molotov cocktails were thrown at police at Porte de Charenton. At least one officer's gear caught fire during the dispersal of the protest. According to the Paris police prefecture, a group of 200 to 300 rioters clashed with security forces as the march arrived at the gate, and journalists saw masked people dressed in black prying up paving stones to throw at officers. Authorities said the officers hit by the fire were protected by their equipment and only lightly hurt. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called the Molotov attack on a mobile gendarme an attempted murder.

The march was part of a third straight weekend of protests over living costs and school conditions, which police put at about 70,000 people in Paris and the interior ministry at around 320,000 nationwide. Authorities deployed some 70,000 police and gendarmes and forced the march onto a single route along the capital's outer boulevards, a restriction that unions and student groups challenged in court and lost. Hundreds of people were arrested across France, and Nuñez said most marches went smoothly despite violence from groups of troublemakers. The picture is not one-sided, though: most marchers were peaceful, organizers have objected to the route restrictions, and police tactics have drawn scrutiny after a 15-year-old lost a hand in an earlier protest, which led Nuñez to suspend one type of stun grenade. With student groups already calling for school and university blockades this week, the question is whether the anger on the streets cools off or boils over again.