Protestsupdated 58m ago3 min read
Archive photo · 17 October 2026Paris Police Grenade Gravely Injures Photographer Ahmed B.; IGPN Opens Investigation
“different groups of masked men dressed in black emerged”
“The prefecture described those gathered at the site as ‘rioters’”
Photo: Jorge Jaramillo, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
A 25-year-old photographer was gravely injured by a police grenade during Oct 17 Paris protest. Public prosecutor opened an inquiry, with IGPN handling the investigation.
Grenades and investigations
A 25-year-old photographer, Ahmed B., was gravely injured by a police grenade during the October 17 demonstration in Paris, and the Paris public prosecutor's office announced the opening of an investigation entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) on Saturday, October 24, 2026.
Ahmed B. was struck in the thigh near Place de la République, and his lawyer, Me Arié Alimi, said, "He almost died. The police did not help him, letting him bleed out on the sidewalk," to AFP.
Me Arié Alimi also argued that the prosecutor’s qualification was meant to protect officials, saying, "This new qualification is solely intended to protect the Prefect of Paris and the Minister of the Interior," to AFP.
The prosecutor’s office said it wanted to "prevent any loss of evidence," and it opened the investigation for "violence by a person holding public authority, followed by mutilation or permanent disability, during a demonstration in a public place."
The investigation was opened in parallel with a civil action filed on Thursday, October 22 by Me Arié Alimi with the senior investigating judge, as the case unfolded amid questions about law enforcement methods during the October 17–18 demonstrations.
Route fights and clashes
More than 500 protesters clashed with police at Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris on Saturday as the capital's demonstration came to a close, and the Paris police prefecture said police were maneuvering to arrest those involved and disperse the crowd. The prefecture said, "Police are maneuvering to apprehend those involved in the unrest and facilitate the dispersal of the crowd," while it described those gathered as "rioters." The Interior Ministry estimated 110,000 people took part in Saturday's march in the capital, while the CGT trade union put the nationwide turnout at 800,000, and the Interior Ministry estimated around 410,000 people took part across France.
Police fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse demonstrators in Paris and several other cities, and the Interior Ministry put the nationwide total at about 410,000 people. Paris police reported that at the end of the demonstration more than 500 troublemakers attacked security forces on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Danton, and it described a demonstrator named David telling AFP, "The police began moving toward everyone, ordering them to lie down and step back."
Arrests, numbers, and next steps
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced "nearly 1,000 arrests" across the country at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and he compared that figure with "385 at the same time on October 17." The demonstration in Paris, which gathered 110,000 people on Saturday, was "entirely dispersed along the Vincennes avenue," where clashes had broken out at the end of the march between demonstrators and law enforcement. A gendarmerie helicopter was deployed to support ground forces and detect residual groups of vandals, and a water truck and tear gas grenades were used in response to projectiles thrown at the security forces.
The protest this Saturday brought together as many people as last weekend, and 500 rioters, according to the police, confronted the security forces at the time of dispersion. The organizers of the October 24 protest were calling to "intensify the movement against the high cost of living and for social justice," as merchants feared new abuses after the vandalism and looting last weekend.