France arrests 135 as police use tear gas and Paris museums close

Update, 24 October, 18:07 Israel time

French police fired tear gas to stop demonstrators from getting into city centres, The Times of Israel reported in a later entry on its live blog. The item refers to city centres in general, not only to Lyon, which until now was the one city where tear gas had been described. The material available does not name the other places involved or give any figures.

Separately, The Jerusalem Post reported that authorities in Paris had closed museums over concern about the protests, putting the Mona Lisa out of reach for visitors. The painting hangs in the Louvre, whose closure had already been reported. The Post describes the shutdown as covering more than one museum in the capital, though the material provided does not list which others were affected.

Neither new report updates the arrest count given by the interior minister, mentions any injuries, or settles the differing accounts of whether clashes had broken out in Paris.

The story as first reported

Protests resumed across France this weekend, with the interior minister reporting that police had detained at least 135 people by early afternoon local time. According to N12, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the arrests were made in clashes with police and that the count stood as of 13:00 local time. The Times of Israel, citing the minister, reported that officers also seized various weapons.

The renewed demonstrations came a week after an earlier round of protests descended into chaos, Ynet reported, adding that tens of thousands of police officers had been deployed on French streets, that security forces fired tear gas at demonstrators in Lyon, and that cultural institutions and tourist sites had been closed to the public. Among those closures was the Louvre in Paris, which N12's foreign desk said was shut to visitors because of concern that rioting in the city would flare up again.

Paris and Lyon: what each report describes

The picture from the capital differs between the outlets. Ynet's report said that, up to the time it was written, nothing out of the ordinary had been recorded in Paris, while the situation in Lyon had already escalated to the use of tear gas. Abu Ali Express, an Israeli Telegram news channel, posted earlier in the day that the first clashes of the weekend protests had begun in Paris and that armoured vehicles were positioned close to the Élysée Palace and at key locations around the city. A few minutes later the same channel reported initial clashes in Lyon as well.

These accounts are not reconciled in the material. Ynet describes Paris as calm so far; Abu Ali Express describes clashes there. The two were published at different times during the day, and neither offers detail on the scale of what it describes. Readers should treat the Paris situation as unsettled on the basis of these reports.

For readers less familiar with French geography, Ynet describes Lyon as the country's third-largest city. The Élysée Palace, mentioned by Abu Ali Express, is the official residence and office of the French president, which is why a security presence around it tends to be read as a signal of how seriously authorities are treating a protest.

Who is speaking for the French government

The arrest figure comes from Laurent Nuñez, named in N12's report as France's interior minister. The interior ministry oversees the national police and is the department that typically issues running tallies of detentions during large demonstrations. Both N12 and The Times of Israel attribute the figure of 135 to him; N12 frames it as a minimum, saying at least 135 people had been detained, and ties it to a specific hour. The Times of Israel adds the detail about weapons being seized but, in the material available, does not say what kinds of weapons were involved or how many.

Ynet also used the figure of 135, describing it as the number arrested so far, and carried the remark that it was "going to be a long day". The report does not make clear in the material available who said this.

The Louvre closure and wider shutdowns

The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world and one of the best known tourist sites in Paris, so its closure is a visible marker of how authorities and institutions are preparing for unrest. N12 linked the decision specifically to fears of renewed rioting in the city, which suggests the earlier round of protests a week before affected the capital. Ynet reported that other cultural institutions and tourist sites were also closed, but did not list them in the material provided.

Italy

Ynet's headline also referred to a state of alert for possible chaos in Italy and described a war-like atmosphere there. The report as provided contains no further detail on Italy: no cities, no figures and no description of what Italian authorities were doing. This page does not draw any connection between events in the two countries beyond noting that Ynet mentioned both.

What the reports do not say

• The cause of the protests. None of the reports explains what the demonstrators are protesting about, who organised them or what demands they are making.
• Injuries. No report mentions anyone being hurt, among protesters or police. That absence should not be read as confirmation that nobody was injured.
• The earlier protests. Ynet says demonstrations a week earlier turned chaotic, but the material gives no detail on what happened then, where, or how many people were involved.
• Where the arrests happened. The figure of 135 is national; the reports do not break it down by city.
• The weapons. The type and quantity of weapons seized are not described.
• The Paris picture. Whether clashes in the capital were significant remains disputed between Ynet and Abu Ali Express in these reports.
• Later developments. All of the reports were published during the day and describe an evolving situation. The arrest count was given as of early afternoon and may have changed.