Protests against rising living costs spiraled into disorder and clashes throughout France on Saturday.

For weeks students have marched in over 40 cities to highlight what they view as insufficient support for education. This weekend they were joined by yellow vest campaigners and employees frustrated by high prices for fuel, food, and daily essentials.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told reporters that 110000 people demonstrated in Paris while 550000 took part nationwide. The Confédération Générale du Travail, the country's biggest union backing the events, put the total even higher at nearly 800000.

Events that started peacefully grew heated in central Paris and elsewhere, leading to widespread theft and disorder.

Around Place de la République young demonstrators broke shop windows and seized goods, according to AFP. An SFR phone outlet and stores selling high-end items and apparel were targeted.

Supermarket chains including Franprix, Monoprix, Picard, and Carrefour City were also hit in the capital. In the 11th district looters left a Franprix carrying bags of drinks, spirits, and pastries.

A shop owner named Cédric near the square told RTL radio he had locked himself inside to guard his stock. He described 30 years in the area and said the crowd was destroying everything, breaking windows, using glass against officers, and making threats. He called the scene the apocalypse.

Similar theft and damage occurred in Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lille, Toulouse, and Strasbourg, where supermarkets, pharmacies, luxury shops, and electronics outlets were ransacked.

Images showed high-end stores such as Galeries Lafayette being stripped. Lacoste CEO Thierry Guibert posted on Instagram about the violence and destruction, noting that looting of Lacoste and Aigle outlets along with other businesses threatens jobs, years of effort, skills, and the work of thousands. He said he could not accept the destruction of what had been built collectively.

Videos on social media captured buildings in flames, including the bell tower of Limoges city hall after intruders set the ground floor alight.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced late Saturday that 1200 people had been detained nationwide and at least 150 officers injured. He stated that peaceful protests belong in the republic but arson, theft, and attacks do not. President Emmanuel Macron said on X that those who broke into prefectures, businesses, and town halls would face prosecution and punishment.