Hundreds more were arrested in a fifth night of rioting in France, triggered by the police killing of a 17-year-old, as police sent reinforcements to cities around the country.
Protesters, mostly minors, have taken to the streets of flashpoint cities, burning cars, damaging shops and public infrastructure and clashing with riot police, since an officer shot Nahel M. at point blank range as he attempted to flee a traffic stop on Tuesday.
The killing was captured on video, which spread on social media, fueling outrage over police violence against minorities, highlighting severe racial tensions in France.
A day after Nahel was laid to rest in his home town near Paris, the interior ministry said police had made 719 arrests overnight, a provisional tally, just one day after around 1,300 protesters were detained.
In Saturday night’s clashes, 45 police officers or gendarmes were injured, 577 vehicles torched, 74 buildings set on fire and 871 fires set in streets and other public spaces.
While the nationwide figures appear to show a drop in tensions, police still recorded a number of incidents.
Mayor’s home ram-raided
The mayor of a town south of Paris said rioters had rammed a car into his home, injuring his wife and one of his children, and set on fire.
“Last night the horror and disgrace reached a new level,” said the mayor, Vincent Jeanbrun, as an investigation was launched into the incident, with prosecutors aiming to secure a charge of attempted murder.
Around 45,000 police were deployed across France, the same number as the night before, with reinforcements dispatched to cities where police were overwhelmed by the protesters, including Lyon, Grenoble and Marseille.
Of the total, 7,000 were concentrated on Paris and its suburbs, including along tourist hotspot the Champs Elysees avenue in central Paris following calls on social media to take rioting to the heart of the capital.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin claimed that the massive police presence had helped keep the violence in check.
In Marseille, which has seen intense clashes and looting, police dispersed groups of youths Saturday evening at the Canebiere, the main avenue that splits the city center. A number of towns declared overnight curfews.
The crisis is the worst that President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership has faced since the “Yellow Vest” protests rocked France in 2018. He left early from an EU summit in Brussels on Friday so he could attend a second cabinet crisis meeting.
He was later forced to postpone a trip to Germany that was due to begin on Sunday.
Funeral of killed teenager
Nahel’s funeral ceremony was held on Saturday in Nanterre, where he lived, with hundreds gathering peacefully along with his mother and grandmother.
The event was marked by “reflection” and went off “without incidents”, one witness said. Salsabil, a young woman of Arab descent, said she had come to express support for Nahel’s family.
“I think it’s important we all stand together,” she said. Marie, 60, said she had lived in Nanterre for 50 years and there had always been problems with the police.
“This absolutely needs to stop. The government is completely disconnected from our reality,” she said.
The shooting of the teenager has reignited longstanding complaints by poor and racially mixed urban communities of police violence and racism. Macron had denied there is systemic racism in French law enforcement agencies.
‘Young or very young’
In a bid to limit the ongoing violence, buses and trams in France stopped running after 9:00 pm and the sale of large fireworks and inflammable liquids has been banned. Marseille stopped all its urban transport from 6:00pm.
Macron has demanded parents to take responsibility for underage rioters, one-third of whom were “young or very young.”
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said Saturday that 30 percent of those arrested were minors, while the interior minister said the average age of those arrested was 17.
When asked whether the government could declare a state of emergency in response to the riots, Darmanin said: “Quite simply, we’re not ruling out any hypothesis and we’ll see after tonight what the President of the Republic chooses.”
French police officers detain a demonstrator in Paris. /Ludovic Marin/AFP
The protests have also upended the start of France’s tourist season, with Britain and other European countries updating their travel advice to warn tourists to stay away from areas affected.
China’s consulate in Marseille also warned its citizens to “be vigilant and exercise caution” after reports that a bus carrying Chinese tourists was pelted with stones in the southern city.
Culture and entertainment have been disrupted, with singer Mylene Farmer calling off stadium concerts and French fashion house Celine cancelling its Paris menswear show.
A 38-year-old policeman has been charged with voluntary homicide over Nahel’s death and has been remanded in custody.
The French foreign ministry said any suggestion of systemic discrimination in the police force was “totally unfounded”.
