The interior ministry said 1,311 people were arrested overnight in France as 45,000 police officers tried to control the riots.
Riots in France
Protests continued for a fourth night in various cities across France following the police killing of a 17-year-old named Nahel M. The unrest continued into Saturday morning, with 1,311 arrests made nationwide on Friday night. The interior ministry reported approximately 2,500 fires but noted that there were fewer fires and attacks on police stations compared to the previous night.
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Although the number of arrests was higher than the 917 made on Thursday night, the government indicated that the violence was starting to decrease due to the deployment of 40,000 police officers on Thursday.
However, despite the significant presence of at least 45,000 officers on Friday night, the demonstrators remained undeterred, and disturbances persisted in several cities, including Paris, Marseille, Lyon, and French territories overseas. Tragically, a 54-year-old individual in French Guiana died after being struck by a stray bullet, according to The Associated Press.
During the four nights of riots, hundreds of police officers and firefighters across the country have been injured, with an additional 79 injuries reported overnight. The authorities have not disclosed the number of injured protesters.
In the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, firefighters extinguished fires started by demonstrators, which had damaged cars on Saturday. In the nearby town of Colombes, protesters turned over garbage bins to create makeshift barricades.
In the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, looters broke into a gun shop on Friday evening and stole weapons, as reported by the police. Nearly 90 people were arrested in Marseille, where protesters set cars on fire and smashed store windows to steal goods.
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In the eastern city of Lyon, protesters vandalized buildings, and approximately one-third of the approximately 30 arrests made were for theft, according to the police. Authorities stated that there were fires in the streets following a protest involving over 1,000 people on Friday evening.
Despite the government’s appeals for calmer demonstrations and increased security, acts of violence occurred during daylight hours on Friday. An Apple Store was looted in the eastern city of Strasbourg, where the police eventually used tear gas. In a shopping mall near Paris, the windows of a fast-food restaurant were smashed, and officers prevented people from breaking into a closed store.
On Friday, the Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, issued an order to halt the operation of all public buses and trams nationwide during the night, as they had been targeted by rioters. Darmanin also warned social media platforms not to allow themselves to be exploited for promoting violence.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who held social media responsible for exacerbating the violence, specifically mentioned Snapchat and TikTok as platforms being used to coordinate unrest. He accused them of facilitating the spread of imitative violence. Macron also appealed to parents to ensure that their children stayed away from the streets.
The riots were triggered by an incident on Tuesday where a police officer shot and killed a teenager after a chase. According to the police, the teen refused to stop his vehicle and posed a potential risk of harm to others.
The police officer involved in the shooting, who remains unidentified, has been preliminarily charged with voluntary homicide. Preliminary charges indicate that investigating magistrates strongly suspect wrongdoing but require further information before proceeding to trial.
Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache stated that his initial investigation led him to believe that the officer’s use of the firearm was not legally justified.
Nahel’s mother, speaking on France 5 television, expressed her anger towards the accused officer but emphasized that her grievance was not directed at the police as a whole.
She said, “He saw a young person who looked Arab, and he wanted to end his life. A police officer should not be able to use his gun and shoot our children, taking their lives away.”
Nahel’s family and friends will gather for a funeral ceremony in his hometown of Nanterre on Saturday.