In Photos: Riots in Paris Over Rising Fuel Taxes Worst in Decade

The protests against increased taxes and living costs devolved into France’s worst urban riot in a decade.

A demonstrator watches a burning car near the Champs-Elysees avenue during a demonstration.

(Photo: AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron asked for an evaluation of possible protest security measures on Sunday, 2 December, a day after a Paris demonstration against increased taxes and living costs devolved into France’s worst urban riot in a decade.

Some radical far-right and far-left activists were involved in the riot, as well as a "great number" of protesters wearing yellow jackets, Paris police Prefect Michel Delpuech said.

The fluorescent jackets, which French motorists are required to have in their cars for emergencies, are an emblem of a grassroots citizens’ movement protesting fuel taxes.

Hours after he flew back to the French capital from the G-20 summit in Argentina, Macron held an emergency meeting at the Elysee presidential palace while crews worked to remove charred cars, broken glass and graffiti from the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue and other top Paris sites.

Paris police said 133 people were injured, including 23 police officers, as crowds trashed the streets of the capital on Saturday. 

Hooded demonstrators smash a car during a demonstration on Saturday in Paris. 

Officers fired tear gas and used water cannons to tamp down the violence as protesters torched cars, smashed windows, looted stores and tagged the Arc de Triomphe with spray paint.

Fires were started at six buildings and more than 130 makeshift barricades and 112 vehicles were torched.

Paris police Prefect Michel Delpuech said some officers described encountering “unprecedented” violence, including protesters using hammers, gardening tools, bolts, aerosol cans as well as rocks in physical confrontations.

The grassroots protests began on 17 November with motorists upset over a fuel tax hike, but have grown to encompass a range of demands and complaints that Macron’s government does not care about the problems of ordinary people.

The scene in Paris contrasted sharply with protests elsewhere in France that were mostly peaceful.

A supporter of Marseille waves a flag representing a giant yellow jacket, in solidarity with the movement of the demonstrators, called yellow jackets, who protest against the rising of the fuel taxes, during the League One soccer match between Marseille and Reims at the Velodrome stadium, in Marseille, southern France.

Workers clean up the street as they remove burned motorcycles, near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

A man rides his bicycle past by charred cars near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.