Ministers, officials and police under pressure over response to days of violent unrest in cities across France

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has criticised “unbridled violence” after one of the most violent days of unrest in years left public buildings burned, hundreds of shops destroyed and looted and more than 2,000 people arrested in cities across the country.

“Watching these images, we have all asked ourselves how could French people do this to France?” he said in a televised address.