Rioters set hundreds of cars on fire on New Year's Eve in France.
Compared to previous years, however, the violence around the turn of the year decreased, including against security forces, said France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Saturday.
874 cars were burned out, it was said, almost 450 fewer than at the turn of the year 2019/2020.
441 people were provisionally arrested.
Cars also burned in Strasbourg, where there were particularly violent riots on New Year's Eve two years ago.
At least two police officers were slightly injured when attackers shot them with fireworks.
According to a study by the French polling institute IFOP, burning vehicles have been part of New Year's Eve in France since the early 1990s.
Especially in poorer parts of the city, people set cars on fire, for very different reasons.
Sometimes it's about personal accounts, sometimes about expressing displeasure with the political leadership, sometimes about insurance fraud.
For example, at the turn of the year 2007/2008 after President Nicolas Sarkozy took office, there were a particularly large number of vehicle fires. Sarkozy said in 2005 that he wanted to clean the poorer districts "with the Kärcher". But even at the height of the “yellow vests” movement during President Emmanuel Macron's term in office, the number of burned-out cars was exceptionally high.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, at the turn of the year more than 95,000 police officers and gendarmes were watching over compliance with the corona rules, which had been imposed due to the rapidly increasing number of infections and the spread of the omicron variant of the virus.
In Paris and in large parts of the country, alcohol was banned on the streets.
The sale of fireworks was banned almost nationwide before New Year's Eve.
In the capital and many departments bars and restaurants had to close at 2:00 a.m. on January 1st.
In many cities in France, including Paris, people have to wear masks all the time again outside.