A firefighter extinguishes a burning car following New Year celebrations in Lille, northern France.
A total of 804 vehicles were set aflame in all of France on New Year’s Eve, a 14.5% decrease from the previous year, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Twitter on Friday.
The 2014-2015 celebrations saw 940 cars burned.
Burning automobiles as a way to ring in the new year has grown into a trend in recent years, with mostly young men using it as a form of protest.
The ministry said that 622 people were taken into custody by French authorities over New Year’s, twice as many as a year before.
The New Year’s Eve celebrations took place amid a heavy police presence seven weeks after the deadly November 13 terror attacks in Paris in which 130 people died.
