More than 2,000 people have been arrested in France as protesters call for a "new revolution."

City streets across the country were left littered with shattered glass and torched trash cans on Sunday following widespread clashes, fires, and mass looting rocking the European economic powerhouse as protesters staged mass demonstrations.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Sunday that more than 2,000 protesters were arrested in the violent clashes, arson, and widespread looting.

“The right to protest is a fundamental right. Deliberately and collectively sowing disorder through violence is not,” Nunez wrote in a post on X.

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The minister added that police authorities had launched an investigation "to identify the perpetrators of these acts so they can be brought to justice."

Over 600 police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters are said to be injured due to the ongoing unrest across the country and beyond.

French locals said the vast destruction to buildings and streets reminded them of war scenes.

"It's like we had a war," said Mehmet Ozeden, a 78-year-old resident of the French capital.

Police authorities said masked protesters had set fires and attacked public buildings and businesses in several cities, including Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Nice and Limoges, among others.

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In Limoges, a city in central France, flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall, causing the roof of the historic building to collapse.

Nunez and Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu blamed the nationwide unrest on “radical far-left groups” mobilizing the masses.

However, opposition politicians from both the Left and the Right put the blame on the Macron government's heavy-handed policing tactics.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, from the ultra-Left, accused the Macron government of organizational failings that had “opened the door to chaos."

Marine Le Pen, from the far-right, warned that France's democracy was at risk due to the government's heavy-handed crackdown on protesters.

She called on France's President Emmanuel Macron to step down to calm the situation.

The Elysee had announced that Macron was scheduled to take part in an important meeting with top government officials before his Sunday public speech at 1800 GMT.

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Meanwhile, frustrated citizens — struggling under an unbearable cost-of-living surge compounded by government spending cuts that have lowered public service standards — are drawing parallels between the roots of the current unrest and the widespread poverty that helped trigger the French Revolution of 1789.

Saturday’s demonstrations drew 550,000 people nationwide, including 110,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry, while organizers put the turnout at around 800,000.

The left groups' mobilization brought together Yellow Vest collectives, trade unions and the discontented farmers, as well as the protesting students who had initially started the uprising.

Analysts attribute the students' protests to education cuts, rising living costs and growing distrust in the Elysee government.