France Violence: President Macron to Chair Crisis Meeting, 667 Arrested As Riots Spread

PARIS: Emmanuel Macron will chair another crisis meeting of ministers, even as the French government was struggling to control the spiraling unrest by protestors.

Unrest and violence erupted for a third consecutive night in France, spreading from housing estates to the centre of major cities after the police fatally shot a 17-year-old boy of Algerian and Moroccan descent during a traffic stop in Nanterre, a suburb west of central Paris.

Officials said a total of 667 people have been arrested across France till the early hours of Friday morning, as riots continued into the third night of the shooting.

The officer involved in the shooting was charged with voluntary homicide on Thursday and kept in provisional detention in the capital even as an estimated 6,000 people protested in the streets of Nanterre in memory of Nahel M, as the teenager has been identified.

Marchers threw fireworks and projectiles at police, set alight bins, while buses and bus depots were torched in towns and cities across the country. Public buildings were also targeted in some towns.

Dijon and other towns in Burgundy witnessed unrest, the centre of Marseille in the south saw clashes, as well as around Lille in the north. Disturbances were also reported in cities like Rennes and Lyon. Meanwhile, protesters in Paris clashed with police, burned bins and there was looting of shops in the centre of the capital for the first time.

Clashes with police continued through the night in the Pablo Picasso housing estate in Nanterre, where the shot teenager Nahel had grown up.

Full or partial night-time curfews were imposed in at least three towns near Paris, including that of Clamart, Compiègne and Neuilly-sur-Marne. There was prediction of “widespread urban violence over the coming nights,” in a police intelligence report which was leaked to French media.

A lawyer, who spoke on behalf of the officer accused of shooting the 17-year-old Nahel M in Nanterre, said an apology has been offered to the teen’s family. On Thursday, the 38-year-old officer was charged for the French equivalent of voluntary homicide.

The lawyer Lienard also said the officer had intended to aim towards the teen’s leg but he was bumped, which caused him to shoot towards his chest. He said the officer wanted him to be stopped, but didn’t want to kill the driver.

According to figures from the interior ministry, around 420 people had been arrested as of 3.30am on Friday. More than 40,000 police officers have been deployed across the country, around four times the numbers that were mobilised on Wednesday.

France’s interior minister Gérald Darmanin has called for support for the police, gendarmes and firefighters “who are doing a brave job.”

A peaceful vigil and march led by Nahel’s mother in Nanterre descended into violence as protesters burned down cars, put barricades on streets and threw projectiles at the police.

“Vengeance for Nahel” was scrawled by protesters across buildings and a bank was set ablaze as night set in, before firefighters put out the fire and an armoured vehicle was deployed by an elite police unit.

As the night wore on, there were violent skirmishes between rioters and police in Lille, Toulouse, Marseille, Lyon, Pau and Montpellier.

According to reports, Nike and Zara stores were vandalised and looted in central Paris, with 14 people arrested. There were further arrests after shop windows were smashed along the famous shopping street of rue de Rivoli.

On Thursday, Macron had held a morning crisis meeting with senior ministers after the second night of unrest and rioting across France.

The president had also appealed for calm on Wednesday, significantly saying that Nahel’s death was “unexplainable and inexcusable,” in a remark which was unusually frank.

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