Follow-Up: 54 Arrested After Frankfurt Riots, More Than 100 Officers Injured; France Revises Arrest Toll to 779

On October 31, the youth group "Gen Z regelt" held marches in more than 30 German cities while France saw a third consecutive weekend of cost-of-living protests; in both countries the demonstrations turned into clashes with police after dark, as reported earlier by GSM. On Sunday, November 1, German and French authorities released updated tallies and investigation developments.

Frankfurt police and the Hesse interior ministry published the official count on Sunday: 54 people were arrested around the Zeil shopping street (aged 13 to 29, most of them German citizens), 87 criminal complaints were registered, 366 people were identity-checked, 1,225 dispersal orders were issued and about 1,300 officers were deployed; 17 shops were damaged and five were looted. Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck told a Sunday news conference that more than 100 police officers were injured during the night, one of them seriously after a stone thrown into his face knocked out his teeth. Police estimated that between 1,000 and 1,500 violence-prone disruptors were active in Frankfurt that night. The daytime Frankfurt march drew up to about 8,000 people by police count and was dissolved by police at around 6:20 p.m.

Hamburg police said on Sunday, via broadcaster NDR, that 11 officers were injured over the day, after 12 had been reported on Saturday evening. About 6,700 people joined the Hamburg march; after construction barriers were torn out and set alight and stones and fireworks were thrown at officers, the organizer ended the march early at 4:56 p.m. At around 10 p.m., police stopped, checked and provisionally arrested about 120 people near the main station at Steintorweg, seizing fireworks; federal police issued more than 40 additional dispersal orders. Cologne police updated their tally on Sunday: 23 officers were injured and five patrol cars damaged during the night; officers established the identities of nearly 1,000 people from a group from which bottles, stones and fireworks had been thrown, five people were taken into custody at the cathedral square, and one bystander was injured. Cologne Police President Johannes Hermanns said officers had seized Molotov cocktails and emergency hammers from masked individuals and defended the city's short-notice ban on the march entering the city center; Left Party lawmaker Lea Reisner, by contrast, criticized the police operation as disproportionate and escalating.

Berlin police released preliminary figures: an evening march under the slogan "Gen Z hat genug!" grew from about 700 to up to 3,500 people; stones, bottles and eggs were thrown at officers and a tram was blocked and attacked before police halted the march. In total, 27 officers were lightly injured and up to 56 people were temporarily detained. Police stressed that the march was not part of "Gen Z regelt," from which the initiative had distanced itself in advance; the initiative's own rally of about 5,000 people at the Brandenburg Gate remained largely peaceful, with only five people briefly restricted.

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the Bild newspaper on Sunday that violence-prone left-wing groups and rioters from a migrant milieu had hijacked the peaceful afternoon demonstrations. "The rioters and looters will be identified and held to account. This breach of the peace must be followed by tough penalties," he said, adding that the massive police deployment had prevented Paris-style excesses of violence. Hesse Premier Boris Rhein told dpa he was shocked by the violence in Frankfurt. Green Party leader Franziska Brantner condemned the riots, saying violence harmed the legitimate concerns of the many who had protested peacefully; Left Party chair Ines Schwerdtner said the affordability crisis and social cuts would not disappear because a few people rioted afterwards.

A spokesperson for "Gen Z regelt" said what happened after the rallies ended was beyond the initiative's influence; the group issued a statement distancing itself from all forms of violence, saying, "We stand for peaceful protest." The organizers put nationwide turnout at about 120,000, while police counts in the largest cities were far lower: up to about 8,000 in Frankfurt, about 5,000 in Berlin, about 6,700 in Hamburg and about 4,000 in Munich. The initiative announced on its website on Sunday that it would hold another nationwide day of action on November 14.

France's Interior Ministry published its final tally on Sunday: about 320,000 people took part in 291 public actions on October 31, including 70,000 in Paris, and 779 people were arrested over the day including Halloween-night operations, up from the 565 announced on Saturday evening. The ministry said turnout was down 22 percent from October 24 and 42 percent from October 17; organizers put the figure at close to 500,000. The ministry counted 36 shops damaged, three of them looted.

The Paris prosecutor's office said on Sunday that it had opened an investigation into attempted homicide against public officials after an explosive device was thrown at around 15 police officers and gendarmes on Saturday. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez called the throwing of a Molotov cocktail at a mobile gendarme an attempted murder; the gendarme was only lightly injured and did not stop his service. The prosecutor's office said the number of injured officers was still being tallied, with known injuries including second-degree burns and tinnitus. According to Radio France Internationale, a Yellow Vests coordination group has called for the movement to continue on November 6 and 7.

Sources: Statements by the German federal interior minister and the Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin police, and by the French Interior Ministry and the Paris prosecutor's office, as verified against reporting by dpa, NDR, AFP and Reuters.

Related: Youth Protests in France and Germany Turn Violent: 320,000 March in France, 565 Arrested

Related: Cost-of-Living Protests Reach Germany as Youth Movement Marches on Halloween; France Braces for Another Saturday of Protests

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：法兰克福蔡尔（Zeil）购物街上的 MyZeil 商场（资料图，非事发现场）。10月31日晚的砸店与抢掠主要发生在蔡尔一带。照片：Fred Romero，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The MyZeil mall on Frankfurt's Zeil shopping street (file photo, not the scene). The smashing and looting on the night of October 31 took place mainly along the Zeil. Photo: Fred Romero, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Latest in World

Follow-Up: Bangladesh Garment Factories Reopen on November 2: Workers Demand 30,000 Taka Monthly Wage, Manufacturers Warn of 'No Work, No Pay' If Stoppages Resume2026-11-02Follow-Up: Bulgaria Presidential Runoff Near-Final Results: Iotova Wins With 57.58 Percent, Set to Become the Country's First Elected Woman President2026-11-02