WA Today reported that Ciarra Docampo, wearing a black balaclava, ski goggles and a bucket hat, was filmed allegedly tending to the fire as it spread from the ground floor to the belfry. The neo-renaissance clock tower collapsed in front of a baying crowd, encapsulating the devastation of the riots. Limoges Mayor Guillaume Guérin quickly labelled Ciarra Docampo the alleged "mastermind" of the attack and said the destruction was not the work of a single protester but an organised far-left group. He claimed the group brought fireworks, mortars and battering rams to break down the building's doors.
The suspect's father, Fernando Ciarra, a 70-year-old Basque separatist, was sentenced to three years in prison last April for arson attacks in Limoges, including burning eight vehicles belonging to the national electricity distributor and attacks on a broadcast station and mobile phone tower. WA Today reported that prosecutors said Ciarra Docampo had links to the group Les Soulèvements de la Terre (The Uprise of the Earth), was on a terror watch list and had been convicted of assaulting a police officer two years ago during a protest at a wood pellet factory. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The arson occurred amid nationwide riots that began as student protests weeks ago. Security experts estimate about 5,000 "black bloc" or far-left violent actors were on the ground in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Limoges. Jean-Yves Camus, a political scientist and expert on extremism, said the violence was planned and involved many non-French nationals, with people speaking English and German during the riots. Dr Elias Forneris of the Royal United Services Institute raised the possibility that Russian and Iranian actors would gain from the chaos, noting that social media amplification would be easy to execute.
President Emmanuel Macron denounced comments blaming "migrants, jihadists and communists" for the violence in a veiled swipe at US President Donald Trump, calling them "as unacceptable as they are stupid." On the streets of Paris, business owners described the destruction. A mobile phone shop owner said his insurer refused to pay €90,000 in damages and stolen stock. A florist said masked men used iron bars to break in, saying, "They came here to destroy, and they don't care what they are destroying." A bakery owner said rioters smashed the window with metal bars and took bakery items. Macron pledged to prevent a repeat of the violence, as the Yellow Vest movement filed plans for a Paris march on Saturday.