Paris under Covid-19 curfew [in photos]
Just before 9 pm on Saturday, restaurant in Paris closed their doors and people rushed to go back home to respect a strict curfew put in place to slow the coronavirus outbreak. The streets of the City of Light were deserted where it is usually common to sit down to a meal after 9 pm.
The French government announced on Wednesday a 9 pm to 6 am curfew for densely-populated Paris and eight other French cities -- some 20 million inhabitants -- and imposed a limit of six on home gatherings blamed for a large proportion of new coronavirus infections.
On Saturday, a total of 1,350 police and gendarmes were deployed in Paris and its suburbs to ensure compliance with the latest restrictions -- the strictest since a two-month lockdown ended in May.
Curfews are also in place in the cities of Lille, Lyon, Toulouse, Montpellier, Saint-Etienne, Aix-Marseille, Rouen and Grenoble.
The curfew will remain in place for at least four weeks.
► The photos below were shot during Paris curfew on Saturday night.