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France has been hit by its worst street violence in years, and footage of burning cars and stormed buildings has travelled fast into Sri Lankan social media feeds. Scenes of crowds forcing their way into official buildings are instantly familiar here after the 2022 Aragalaya, which makes them easy to share and easy to misread. However, not every clip is what it claims to be.
One post turned a brief break-in at Marseille’s town hall into a pro-Palestinian “seizure,” while another passed off a riot from December 2022 as the latest situation in Paris. Below are the two videos, and what we found.
Claim 01:
The video below circulated with a Palestinian flag under the caption “Pro-Palestinian supporters enter and seize Marseille town hall in France.”
The accompanying description read: “It is reported that a group forcibly opened the entrance of the town hall in Marseille’s Old Port area yesterday, 2026/10/17, and staged a protest wearing Palestinian flags and keffiyehs. Shouting ‘Revolution, we are taking the Bastille,’ they damaged the interior of the building and drew antifa-related graffiti.”
The video shows a group of protesters forcing open the door of a closed building and going inside.
Claim under test: A video shows pro-Palestinian supporters entering and seizing Marseille town hall in France on October 17, 2026.
Fact-Check 01:
Foreign media, including ABC News and Al Jazeera, reported that the protests in France escalated on Saturday, October 17, 2026, into mass marches, violent clashes, and damage to property. Against that backdrop, we first checked whether the video showed a real event.
It did. On October 17, a group of protesters forced their way into Marseille’s town hall, which stands on the quayside of the Old Port (Vieux-Port). Using security barriers, several dozen protesters forced open the door and briefly entered the ground-floor hall. They damaged furniture, knocked over a bust of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic, and sprayed a circled “A,” the symbol of anarchism, on a wall. International media carried the footage: Euronews, TF1 Info and Yahoo Actualités. The reports said police quickly removed the group and secured the building.
The incident was real, but when we compared the post with media reports, several details in its caption and description turned out to be unverified or misleading.
Parts of the Description Are True: Protesters Shouted “We Are Taking the Bastille”
Not everything in the post was false. French-language media, including La Libre and L’Express, reported that the protesters who entered the town hall shouted “C’est la Révolution, on prend la Bastille” (“It’s the Revolution, we are taking the Bastille”). Furniture and windows inside the building were also reported damaged. The storming of the Bastille prison in Paris on July 14, 1789, is a defining symbol of the French Revolution. The slogan has no connection to the Palestinian issue.
The Town Hall Was Not “Stormed and Seized” by Pro-Palestinian Supporters
The post claimed that pro-Palestinian supporters broke into Marseille town hall. No international media outlet identified the protesters as a pro-Palestinian organisation or group, and we found no report of any group claiming responsibility.
International reports described the incident as part of the wider French protests, which began in high schools in mid-September 2026 and grew into a nationwide movement against the rising cost of living. Details from AFP and The Times of India.
French media reported that those who entered the town hall were mostly young people, some wearing yellow vests (gilets jaunes) and some carrying Palestinian flags. Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan called them “casseurs” (vandals) and said some groups “come in under cover of demands, then smash and damage things” (L’Express). At a press conference, he described the intruders as “black blocs” who were “absolutely not protesters” and had no demands (Yahoo Actualités). Black bloc refers to a street tactic in which masked, black-clad militants move as a group to attack property and police. Neither the footage nor the media reports support the conclusion that everyone who entered was pro-Palestinian.
Marseille was not an isolated target. On the same day, protesters forced their way into Lille town hall, and town halls in Limoges and Angers were also attacked (Yahoo Actualités). The pattern matches the riots that spread across French cities on October 17, not a Palestine-specific action.
Only a Few Protesters Carried Palestinian Flags
Not every protester who entered Marseille town hall carried a Palestinian flag. In the footage below, one protester can be seen with a Palestinian flag draped over his shoulder. Media reports also said “some” carried Palestinian flags, not all.
Several dozen people entered, and only some carried Palestinian flags. That is not enough to say pro-Palestinian supporters “seized” the town hall. It was also a brief entry into the ground-floor hall, not a takeover of the building.
The post also said the protesters wore keffiyehs, the traditional chequered headscarf widely associated with Palestinians. AFP’s footage of the moment does not clearly show anyone wearing one, and several protesters had covered their faces. We found no mention of keffiyehs in any international or French media report on the incident.
No Evidence of Antifa Graffiti: The Symbol Drawn Was the Anarchist “A”
The post said the protesters left antifa-related graffiti. Antifa is a term used for various groups and activists who oppose fascism and far-right movements. None of the international media outlets covering the incident reported any such graffiti.
Media reported that the protesters sprayed a circled “A” on a wall in the hall and painted anti-police slogans on the front of the building. The circled “A” is the symbol of anarchism. It is not the antifa emblem, which is usually a pair of flags inside a circle. That mark alone also does not show that the protesters belonged to any particular movement.
International reports said the break-in at Marseille town hall on October 17 was part of protests across France over rising living costs and declining public services, and that police quickly removed the group. Details from Euronews and Al Jazeera. Describing the incident as “pro-Palestinian supporters storming and seizing Marseille town hall” is therefore misleading.
Claim 02:
The video below, posted with the caption “The City of Light is on fire! Latest situation in Paris,” shows protesters setting vehicles on fire and wrecking a bus shelter.
Claim under test: The video shared as “The City of Light is on fire!” shows the latest situation in Paris.
Fact-Check 02:
The protests that began in mid-September have escalated into serious violence. International media, including ABC News and Euronews, reported that protesters in Paris and other cities rioted and set vehicles alight on October 17. However, we could not find this set of scenes in any international coverage of the recent protests. To trace the video’s real source, we ran several of its frames through a reverse image search.
The search showed that the scene of an overturned, burning vehicle did not come from the current protests. It was an old video that French journalist Rémy Buisine posted on his X account on December 24, 2022, with the caption “Chaos dans le centre de Paris, des véhicules retournés et incendiés. Affrontements en cours” (“Chaos in central Paris, vehicles overturned and set on fire. Clashes ongoing”).
To confirm what the event was, we checked international media reports. On December 23, 2022, a gunman killed three people and wounded three others at and near the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish cultural centre in Paris, and a 69-year-old suspect was arrested. The next day, members of the Kurdish community gathered near Place de la République to demand justice for the victims. Some protesters overturned and burned cars and clashed with police. Details from CBS News and Axios.
Similar scenes have been shared as French student protests since early October. Fact Crescendo has fact-checked them in English and Tamil.
France’s Crisis Began as a School Protest and Became a Nationwide Cost-of-Living Revolt
In mid-September 2026, the protests began as a student action at a high school in Créteil, near Paris, over teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, and run-down buildings. They spread to schools across the country, and teachers, university students and trade unions joined (Al Jazeera). Rising living costs, fuel prices, declining public services and budget proposals to freeze public-sector pay were later added to the grievances. The Yellow Vests movement, which began in 2018 against fuel-tax increases, also joined the October 17 protests (Al Jazeera). France’s Interior Ministry said about 550,000 people marched nationwide on October 17, while the CGT trade union put the figure at 800,000 (ABC News).
Many marches were peaceful, but several cities saw serious violence, including clashes with police, looting of shops, arson attacks on vehicles and damage to public buildings. The 143-year-old town hall in Limoges was largely destroyed by fire (Euronews). Citing the Interior Ministry, foreign media reported that about 2,400 people were arrested during the October 17 protests and nearly 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were injured (BBC).
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had earlier put the number of arrests at 1,200, and the figures continued to be updated. In a televised address on October 18, President Emmanuel Macron said nothing could justify the “unbridled” violence and that “tonight we all feel anger and shame.” He drew a line between protesters with legitimate demands and those who “destroyed, smashed and looted,” and said those responsible must pay. Details from The Manila Times, Al Jazeera, BBC, AP, Al Jazeera and Reuters.
Update (October 20, 2026): Targeted Curfews Followed the Weekend Riots
After the weekend violence, the government introduced targeted curfews on October 19. In Paris, a curfew from 11 pm to 6 am covered the Place de la République and Les Halles areas, and police banned protests in parts of the city from 8 pm. Curfews for minors were declared in Lille and nearby towns and in central Nice, Bordeaux also brought in restrictions, and gatherings and demonstrations were banned in Marseille (Business Today).
Police said the night of October 19 to 20 passed without major incidents. Lecornu said France would impose new curfews wherever needed, with prefects and mayors deciding on the ground, and the government scheduled talks with major social media platforms (Malay Mail / AFP). One protester died of cardiac arrest, about 3,000 shops were affected over the weekend, Macron turned down Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez’s offer to resign, and unions called new strikes and rallies for November 5 (Business Today).
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Conclusion:
Our fact-check found that the video of protesters forcing their way into Marseille town hall on October 17, 2026, during France’s escalating protests, was genuine, and media reported that they shouted, “We are taking the Bastille.” However, it was a brief entry into the ground-floor hall by several dozen people, not a seizure of the building. Some carried Palestinian flags, but no media outlet identified them as a pro-Palestinian group, and Marseille’s mayor described the intruders as rioters and black blocs. There was no evidence of antifa graffiti either; the symbol on the wall was the anarchist circled “A.” Presenting the incident as “pro-Palestinian supporters’ storm and seize Marseille town hall” is therefore misleading.
The video shared as “The City of Light is on fire! Latest situation in Paris” was unrelated to the current protests. It showed protesters overturning and burning vehicles during a Kurdish community protest in Paris on December 24, 2022, the day after a deadly shooting at a Kurdish cultural centre and was first posted by French journalist Rémy Buisine.
