Chaos at the Louvre's Doorstep: Protesters Shut Down Entrance to World's Largest Museum

On Monday morning, students cut off the entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris to express their "support" for high school student protests and denounce "police repression."

The museum was unable to open its doors at its usual time of 9 a.m.

A notice posted by protesters around the Louvre read, "We are proud to announce that we are closing the entrance to the world's largest museum."

Earlier today, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged that police had "lost control" in some cities during the violence that erupted across the country over the weekend.

He pointed to "gaps in anticipation" during preparations, noting that the number of security personnel deployed during the demonstrations was insufficient to deal with the looters and vandals who flocked to the fringes of the protests.

In an indication of the scale of the crisis caused by the clashes, vandalism, and looting that occurred Saturday evening and Sunday, Nuñez submitted his resignation to the President, who rejected it "given the need for continuity in leading security forces," according to a statement from the Élysée Palace on Monday morning.

The government, now in a weakened position, is seeking to regain control and is holding a series of emergency meetings on Monday to address the violence that has shocked the world and turned into a political crisis.

The protests, which involved hundreds of thousands of French citizens demanding improved purchasing power, left behind shocking scenes of attacks on municipal buildings, vandalism and looting of shops, and debris scattered in the streets.

According to authorities, approximately one thousand security force members were injured, while several protesters sustained serious injuries.