Rioters loot shops and hurl Molotov cocktails at police in Frankfurt as Gen Z cost-of-living protests turn violent in Germany
Crowds on the streets of Frankfurt on Saturday night, as around 100 rioters — some in Halloween costumes — smashed open storefronts and attacked emergency workers with Molotov cocktails amid a Gen Z cost-of-living protest that drew an estimated 8,000 demonstrators at its peak.A post shared by @NewsFokus on X showing scenes from Frankfurt am Main under the #GenZRegelt hashtag, as France separately banned Halloween masks ahead of fresh protests.Riot police on the streets of Paris. France banned Halloween masks and deployed 70,000 police and gendarmes nationwide amid warnings of "a very high risk of public disorder.Fires and smoke at Porte de Charenton, Paris, as a French officer was treated for severe burns after a Molotov cocktail struck him — an attack France's interior minister described as attempted murder.
Frankfurt's financial district became the centre of Halloween disorder after roughly 100 "left-wing extremists" joined an otherwise peaceful Gen Z cost-of-living march, with interior minister Roman Poseck confirming that several officers were injured, one seriously. Across 34 German cities, police counted 18,000 demonstrators in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin combined — around half the 36,000 figure that organisers had claimed. France experienced protests for a third straight weekend, with 320,000 people on the streets and an officer suffering burns after being struck by a Molotov cocktail, an attack France's interior minister described as "attempted murder".
Rioters smashed the windows of a Frankfurt gun shop and stole two weapons before a suspect was apprehended and the firearms retrieved.
Water cannons, tear gas and pepper spray were deployed across Germany; police in Berlin alone made at least 56 arrests, and 27 officers were injured.
A protester in a Batman costume was detained in Frankfurt, while Gen Z regelt spokesperson Lina Friedrich maintained that the movement stood for "peace and freedom, rather than war and coercion".
