Tear gas fills Place de la République as Paris cost-of-living protests turn into clashes
Euronews' live broadcast follows masked crowds, charging lines and arrests through a Saturday of nationwide demonstrations.
Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 83,220 views a day, 53 times a normal first day on this channel (1,583).
Watch Live: Dozens detained as protesters clash with security forces across Paris
Video summary
Press to jump
- 0:00Protesters in goggles and masks gather in the streets near Place de la République.
- 1:30Smoke and tear gas start spreading near the République metro entrance.
- 5:19A high-angle camera shows the crowd filling the square and the nearby boulevards.
- 7:00Protesters charge forward and retreat repeatedly amid loud bangs and thrown projectiles.
- 12:35Demonstrators run back coughing as tear gas covers an intersection.
- 15:25Volleys of gas canisters burst among the crowd, setting off further surges and retreats.
Smoke drifts across a metro entrance marked "République" as protesters in goggles and masks crowd the surrounding streets. It is one of the first images in euronews' live broadcast from Paris, where the broadcaster reports that dozens of people were detained on a day of planned demonstrations over the cost-of-living crisis.
The description sets out the background. The French government stepped up security ahead of Saturday's nationwide protests, and student groups were expected to join amid fears of clashes. The square is a familiar rallying point for Paris marches, and on this day it filled completely. An elevated camera shows the crowd spreading from the square into the tree-lined boulevards around it.
At street level, the picture is rougher. Protesters surge forward and fall back amid loud bangs, tear gas canisters burst among them, and people run back coughing as gas covers an intersection. Some throw objects toward police lines. The chants turn political at times. "Même si Macron ne veut pas, nous on est là!" ("Even if Macron doesn't want it, we're here"), one group shouts.
The broadcast passed 55,000 views within 11 hours, far beyond the usual first day for the channel's longer videos. Euronews also posted shorter Paris reports that drew smaller audiences, alongside coverage of a fifth day of anti-government protests in Albania. A short report on Donald Trump signing an order to waive a new package of Russia sanctions also ran well ahead of the channel's usual pace.
Published on Trari
Where next?
- Channel
- euronews
- Subscribers
- 2,580,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 3,766,710
- Channel views, pace per day
- 896,468 (on a normal day: 484,575)
- Video published
- October 17, 2026
- Video views so far
- 55,218 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 83,220
The numbers
The live broadcast drew a far larger audience than euronews' longer videos usually reach on their first day.



