Nearly a Thousand Arrested in France on Monday as Youth Riots Spread

Almost a thousand people were arrested across France on Monday as the multicultural teenager riots continue to ramp up with the backing of the far-left. At least 984 people were arrested, and 65 police officers were injured as the so-called high school protests entered their third week on Monday, in which hordes of teenagers have gone on violent rampages in cities across the country, with little in the way of a coherent message other than an apparent desire to usher in chaos. Since the riots began in mid-September, over 5,000 people have been arrested, 87 per cent of whom were minors, Le Figaro reported. The demonstrations have seen a total of 715 police officers and gendarmes injured, as well as 85 school staff members, including 34 school principals. TOPSHOT – Protesters are detained by riot police officers during clashes near the Place de la Bastille in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by LOU BENOIST / AFP via Getty Images) While the far-left have attempted to ascribe noble motives to the rioters, the demonstrations have been marred by frequent attacks on average citizens, including a woman who suffered burns after a 15-year-old sprayed a makeshift flamethrower into her face. Among those arrested on Monday was a high school girl, who was found to be carrying a Molotov cocktail, lighter, baking soda, and rubbing alcohol in her schoolbag, the Paris Prefect revealed on X. Monday once again also saw masked students setting fires at their schools — while supposedly protesting to demand better educational environment standards — including at the Lycée Vauquelin in Paris, where youths broke windows and set a fire outside of one of the doors, prompting an evacuation of the students. Meanwhile, at least 190 students have also been injured since the start of the unrest, which Education Minister Édouard Geffray said was mostly a result of “accidental events or injuries caused by troublemakers, particularly mortar fire.” NANCY, FRANCE – OCTOBER 5: A view of fire during protest against current education conditions disrupt classes across the country in Nancy, France on October 5, 2026. (Photo by Muhammed Said Tako/Anadolu via Getty Images) Some of the demonstrators have suffered significant injuries as a result of conflicts with law enforcement, including a 15-year-old in Lens, whose hand was blown off on Monday after he attempted to pick up a stun grenade thrown by police. Another student is reportedly in jeopardy of losing an eye after being hit last week by a rubber bullet fired by riot police. The far-left have seized upon the sensational injuries to assert that police are engaging in brutality against the students. Radical La France Insoumise (LFI) presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon claimed that the country is experiencing an “increasingly brutal” policing approach, saying that “its objective is ever more confused, ever less easy to discern, ever more difficult to define”. Mélenchon, whose party has been accused of manipulating youths into the riots, noted that the number of arrests has already surpassed those made during the Marxist May 1968 student protests, in which the Moroccan-born politician engaged in his first public activism and after which he joined the Trotskyist organisation Organisation communiste internationaliste (OCI). Mélenchon’s party is among several far-left groups set to attend multiple marches on Tuesday, dubbed “Act III” by organisers. Others set to join the demonstrations include the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party. Protesters hold flags and placards in front of a fire during a demonstration of high-school students as part of a nationwide protest movement over learning conditions in Nancy, on October 5, 2026. (Photo by Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP via Getty Images) The LFI party has called supporters to join the student protests with white armbands and helmets to act as a buffer between the youths and the police, a tactic Mélenchon said he learned from the 68 May protests. Others have been less concerned with the rioters’ welfare, and more with the society they seem intent on tearing down. Outside of a school named after Nelson Mandela, centre-right presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau argued for restoring a law abolished in the 1980s by former Socialist President François Mitterrand that would impose fines on rioters and on the parents or family of any child who engages in destruction. “We have to hit them where it hurts: their wallets. And when they are minors, we have to go after their families, obviously, including social benefits and allowances,” Retailleau said. Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon expressed support for imposing “collective responsibility” on those who engage in violent protests, saying that “if you are participating in a violent movement, and after being ordered to disperse by the police, you remain in that violent movement, then a shared responsibility can be invoked.” She also said the government will support fining the parents of any minors who sparked fires or damaged public infrastructure under a “vandals-pay” bill set to be considered in the Senate later this month. Follow Kurt Zindulka on X: Follow @KurtZindulka or e-mail to: kzindulka@breitbart.com \