Protesters blocked entrances to the Louvre museum in Paris on Monday in support of a nationwide high school student protest movement and to denounce “police repression”, the museum’s management and unions told the AFP news agency.
The museum could not open as scheduled because of a protest led by students from the Ecole du Louvre, management said.
A leaflet displayed outside the museum read: “We are proud to announce that we are blocking the world’s largest museum.”
Nationwide, more than 2,330 people were taken into police custody over the weekend, 70% of whom were adults, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday.
More than 2,000 shops were expected to have been affected by the weekend’s violence across France, with damage running into “hundreds of millions of euros”, according to chamber of commerce president Alain Di Crescenzo.
Protests initially began last month with students protesting over conditions in lycées across the country but have escalated to cover a broader range of concerns such as the cost of living and inflation.
This is a developing story and our journalists are working on further updates.
Additional sources • AFP