Paris police have issued an overnight curfew in two areas of the French capital, after a weekend marred by France’s worst rioting in years that targeted city halls, other public buildings and thousands of businesses across the country.

The order aims to protect “people and property from the violence and looting”, Paris police said in a statement on Monday (local time).

The curfew prohibits anyone from entering or remaining on the Place de la République, where rioting took place on Saturday, and the shopping neighbourhood of Les Halles, which has been subject to looting.

The curfew will be in effect from 11pm on Monday until 6am on Tuesday. In addition, gatherings and demonstrations are banned from 8pm, the Paris police said.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had called for “very limited” and “localised” curfews.

In northern France, local authorities imposed a curfew for children and teenagers under 18 in several cities, including Lille, starting from Monday for two days from 8pm to 6am.

Nice, on the French Riviera, also imposed an overnight curfew for minors from 9pm.

Lecornu defended police handling of the unrest, saying that “despite scenes of severe violence and extensive property damage, no one was killed, and that is a miracle”.

Mass protests in France are often tainted by violence on the fringes of otherwise peaceful marches, leading to clashes with police.

Saturday’s unrest recalled the riots that followed the fatal police shooting of a teenager in 2023, when authorities imposed local curfews, and violence during the yellow vest movement that began in 2018 over fuel prices.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez offered his resignation on Sunday but President Emmanuel Macron refused it “given the need for continued command of law enforcement in the current context”, Macron’s office said in a statement.

He instructed Nuñez “to take all necessary steps to ensure full transparency about the failures in planning and intelligence-gathering that led to the violence”.

Macron also asked for the introduction of “new policing tactics on the ground as quickly as possible” to put an end to the violence.

On Sunday evening, groups set fire to bins, bicycles and other objects and looted businesses in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other cities.

That followed the violence during nationwide protests on Saturday against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. At least 2400 people were arrested across the country.

Authorities estimated at least 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted.

In Marseille any protest or other gatherings are banned from noon to 8pm.

Nuñez blamed the violence on “hordes of troublemakers and looters” and “far-left activists”, and said that police strategy needs to be adapted “in the face of extremely mobile groups”.

Authorities said that groups of hundreds of people sought confrontations with police and targeted public buildings, including city halls and other public offices.

“You can’t look shopkeepers in the eye when hundreds of businesses have been looted and say we haven’t lost control in some of these major cities,” Nuñez said.

Flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall in Limoges, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.

Cleanup crews and firefighters cleared shattered glass and other debris from the streets of Paris on Monday.

Ouri Zagoury, owner of a video game shop near Paris’ Place de la République, said that he closed the store on Saturday afternoon, but then saw looters forcing their way in on surveillance cameras.

“There were so many people coming in and out. And even though I called the police, they said not to intervene, that they would come, but they never did, which is another problem,” Zagoury said.

–AP