Europe was left shaken after Halloween protests erupted into violence across several cities.
In Germany, rioters looted shops and allegedly took guns, while French authorities opened an attempted-murder investigation after a police officer was hit by a Molotov cocktail. Hundreds of people were arrested amid the unrest.
Violence also spread to Portugal, where protesters clashed with police in Lisbon during the early hours.
In Frankfurt, a substantial part of the city’s shopping district was closed after what authorities described as violent riots. Police said numerous arrests were made overnight after specialist units were deployed.
Officers used water cannon to break up demonstrators who had thrown stones, bottles and fireworks at emergency workers.
Roman Poseck, the interior minister of Hesse, said “around 100 clearly identified left-wing extremists” had disrupted peaceful cost-of-living protests earlier in the day.
Several shopfronts in Frankfurt’s financial district were smashed, including those of a gun store and a trainer retailer. Police later arrested a suspect and seized two weapons.
In Berlin, police said they were dealing with “the unpleasant side effects of Halloween” as clashes left bins and e-scooters ablaze across the capital.
A person wearing a Batman costume stands before a burning rubbish bin in central Frankfurt
Police detain a demonstrator dressed as Batman during a nationwide protest organised by campaign group Gen Z regelt
People attempt to smash the window of a weapons store during a nationwide Gen Z regelt protest in Frankfurt
Demonstrators wearing Halloween masks pose at a Frankfurt protest held under the slogan “Gen Z Takes Care of It”
A bus was struck by a pyrotechnic device and a police van was covered in graffiti during the disorder. In total, 60 people were arrested as protesters occupied tram lines, blocked roads and continued marching into the evening.
A separate demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate had passed “almost without incident” earlier in the day. But a later gathering at Rosenthaler Platz turned confrontational, leaving 27 officers “slightly injured”, police said.
In Cologne, police officers were attacked near the main railway station, where protesters threw a bicycle and bottles at them.
German broadcaster RTL reported that groups dressed in dark clothing had been kicking walls, shouting and setting off pyrotechnics.
In Bremen, police said a march that started peacefully descended into disorder after some participants set off fireworks and abused officers. Demonstrations also took place in Munich, while an officer in Bonn sustained minor injuries.
Youth protest movement Gen-Z Regelt!—a name meaning “Gen-Z has got this”—had organised demonstrations in 34 German cities on Saturday. Around 120,000 people took part across the country.
The group has publicly condemned the violence in Germany, stating online: “Extremist groups, anti-constitutional symbols, racism and hate speech have no place with us—no matter from which side.”
However, separate marches continued to cause disruption, with police saying they intervened “very decisively and also forcefully” to prevent further damage.
A man dressed in a Batman costume stands in front of police amid riots in the city center of Frankfurt
People loot a weapon through a broken store window, in Frankfurt following a nationwide protest
A person wearing a clown mask uses a traffic sign to smash a store window in Frankfurt
Police run past a trash dumpster set on fire by protesters in downtown Frankfurt
It was ‘deeply saddening that young people who wanted to peacefully demonstrate for their future were infiltrated today by extremists who had nothing but violence in mind’, Cologne’s police chief Johannes Hermanns said.
‘The rioters and looters will be identified and held accountable,’ Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt was quoted as telling the Bild tabloid on Sunday. ‘This breach of the peace must be followed by tough penalties.’
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He accused ‘violent left-wing groups and troublemakers from the migrant community’ of hijacking the otherwise peaceful protests, without elaborating.
Frankfurt police put more than 30 individuals under temporary arrest, local broadcaster HR said, without giving details of those detained.
The minister said the police strategy of maintaining a large presence while deploying officers across multiple locations had worked.
‘Excesses of violence like those in Paris were prevented thanks to our highly committed police forces,’ Mr Dobrindt, a member of the conservative CSU, said.
France launched an ‘attempted murder’ probe this weekend after an officer was engulfed in flames when being struck by a Molotov cocktail in a clash last night.
With more than 770 people arrested yesterday, it was considered one of the more peaceful weekends of protests after extensive riots and looting on October 17 left a trail of damage to shops, public buildings and businesses.
Flames rise on riot policemen after a Molotov cocktail was thrown in Paris
A French Gendarme who is partly burning runs in a street as facing protesters at the end of a protest march during nationwide demonstrations over the rising cost of living and inequality organised by Yellow Vest movement
Riot police advance on protesters during a rally for the right to housing in Lisbon
Three weeks after they began in Porto, the protests for the right to housing continue, calling on the government to scrap the new rent law and adopt measures such as ending demolitions and evictions without providing alternative housing
Police officers take cover behind a vehicle with a Molotov cocktail fire during an anti-government demonstration in central Tirana on October 31, 2026
Protesters stand next to waste bins on fire during an anti-government demonstration in central Tirana, Albania
France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, described the Molotov cocktail attack on the Paris officer as an ‘attempted murder’, and there are reports of the officer suffering second degree burns.
The Paris police prefecture said that several hundred rioters had attacked security forces with projectiles, with the prosecutor’s office confirming on Sunday ‘explosive devices were thrown at around fifteen gendarmes as well as police officers’.
No suspects ‘have been arrested at this stage in connection with the incident’, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that investigators were working to identify those responsible.
Meanwhile, in Lisbon, police clashed with demonstrators who had set up a camp of more than 50 tents in Rossio square at 4.30am as they detained some of the protesters in an attempt to clear the area.
Thousands had earlier marched through the city demanding Portugal’s centre-right government withdraw a controversial rental bill – which critics say would further deteriorate the country’s housing crisis.
Police commander Iuri Rodrigues had warned the protesters several times who had established a camp that if the illegally erected tents were not removed, they could face disobedience charges.
The disorder follows weeks of student demonstrations across Europe. More than 320,000 protesters are said to have joined marches across France as demonstrations over education funding have widened into a broader movement.
In Albania, student anger over high living costs and education underfunding has merged with demands for Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign. Demos have become increasingly violent with protesters hurling paving stones, flares and petrol bombs at police.
Protests over insufficient education funding have become part of a wider movement demanding Mr Rama’s resignation, with demonstrations repeatedly descending into violence.
Meanwhile, French police arrested five people accused of attempting to loot a Foot Locker store in Marseille.
Police in the Bouches-du-Rhone prefecture said the suspects were caught trying to break into the shop’s storerooms.
The French unrest began with demonstrations by high school students demanding the equivalent of around £9billion for the education system, before expanding to draw in groups ranging from trade unions to Black Bloc anarchists.
Demonstrations have also spread to countries including Italy, Portugal and Poland.