"All in all, nearly 3,800 people were arrested and thus removed from the streets, preventing them from doing harm and attacking public buildings and people," Darmanin said during a hearing at the parliament's legal commission.
The minister said police had analyzed street camera footage after the rioting to successfully identify and detain a further 345 suspects.
A third of those detained during the week of unrest were child rioters, Darmanin estimated. The average age of people taken into custody was 17-18 and 90% were French nationals. Some 60% of them had no previous police record.