France woke up Sunday to the full bill from its worst unrest in years: two people dead, more than 2,000 detained, hundreds of officers hurt and shopping streets wrecked across the country.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Sunday that police had detained more than 2,000 people, 855 of them in Paris,. More than 600 officers were injured. One protester died after a cardiac arrest during the Paris demonstrations, and in Nantes a 22-year-old police officer died after being struck by a vehicle, officials said.
The damage list kept growing through Sunday. The retail federation put the number of shops hit at roughly 1,500, with losses in the hundreds of millions of euros. In Limoges, rioters torched the 143-year-old town hall, and the video at the top of this page caught its spire collapsing into the flames.
President Emmanuel Macron addresses the nation Sunday night in Paris. His position, posted Saturday, is not soft:
Those who have broken, attacked prefectures as well as businesses, and looted even our town halls will be prosecuted and punished without exception.
And it was not finished. Police fired tear gas again at Place de la Republique in Paris on Sunday afternoon, bikes were set on fire, and cleanup crews from Lille to Marseille started digging out looted stores ahead of the president’s speech.
Saturday was the explosion. Sunday is the bill coming due.
SEE ALSO: Half a Million People Flood France’s Streets Over the Cost of Living, and the Night Ends With Town Halls on Fire · Students Stormed the Bastille in Paris. Police Hit Back With Tear Gas and Water Cannons.