The mood over the past few days in France felt almost a bit apocalyptic. Business owners told me they were worried more looting might lie ahead, after gangs of individuals had ransacked and destroyed at least 3,000 shops across the country last weekend.
“Some of us are planning to buy weapons to defend ourselves, in case the pillagers come back. One day, there’s going to be a tragedy — for sure,” Jonathan Siad, owner of a tobacco shop in Paris, said to me.
Other store owners were too afraid to talk to us in front of the camera – they worried criminals might see the interview and target their shop.
Residents told me they would try to avoid the area where the demonstration was taking place. Only to add that they hoped the situation wouldn’t escalate like last week, when even places far away from the actual marches became hotspots of clashes between the police and protesters.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez had admitted on Monday a “loss of control” last Saturday. The authorities thus increased the number of police deployed across France by 10,000 to 70,000 this Saturday.
First clashes between protesters and the police started to occur in the late afternoon in several cities across France such as Marseille, Lyon and Paris.
But for now, the much feared mass looting and ransacking doesn’t seem to be happening. The situation is nowhere near the total chaos Paris and other cities like Marseille experienced last Saturday.
“Last weekend, our neighborhood resembled a war zone with gangs roaming the area. Today, it’s completely empty apart from police with their vans,” Yassaman Metghalchi, co-owner of a jewelry shop in the city center of Paris that got looted last Saturday, told me.
“All of our neighbors feel reassured – although the night is still young and we need to wait and see what will happen,” she added.
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