In France‘s fourth night of unrest brought on by the fatal police shooting of a youngster, young rioters battled with police and looted stores.
The incidents put President Emmanuel Macron under even more pressure after he pleaded with parents to keep their kids off the streets and accused social media of inciting violence.
In order to put an end to the protests, more than 45,000 police officers were stationed around France. While the atmosphere appeared to be slightly calmer than on previous evenings, unrest erupted in various towns throughout the nation.
The ministry of the interior reported 994 arrests were made throughout France overnight, while 79 police and gendarmes were injured, 2,560 fires on public roads were recorded.
Demonstrations in Marseille and Lyon were said to be particularly chaotic, with protesters torching buildings and vehicles and looting nearby stores.
The average age of those arrested is said to be around 17, according to interior minister Gerard Darmanin.
Violence has also erupted in Brussels, which saw 100 arrests last night, and in some of France’s territories overseas.
Some 150 police officers were deployed on Friday night on the small Indian Ocean island of Reunion, authorities said, after protesters set garbage bins ablaze, threw projectiles at police and damaged cars and buildings.
In French Guiana, a 54-year-old was killed by a stray bullet on Thursday night when rioters fired at police in the capital, Cayenne, authorities said.
The UK Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for Brits travelling to France in the wake of the protests.
The Foreign Office urges travellers to ‘monitor the media, avoid protests, check the latest advice with operators when travelling and follow the advice of the authorities’.
Demonstrations first broke out on Tuesday after a 17-year-old boy named only as Nahel M was shot dead during a traffic stop in the suburb of Nanterre.
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French president Emmanuel Macron has cancelled a trip to Germany to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in order to deal with the ongoing situation at home.
‘Given the internal situation, the President of the Republic has indicated that he wishes to be able to stay in France for the next few days. The two presidents have therefore agreed to postpone the visit to Germany to a later date,’ local media reports.
On Friday, Macron was forced to return early from a European Council summit in Brussels in order to chair a crisis meeting in Paris.
Earlier this week, the president drew heavy criticism after he was spotted partying at an Elton John concert while the night’s riots were in full swing.
A gun shop in Marseille was looted last night, French media reports.
30 young people reportedly broke into the store and stole ‘five to eight’ hunting rifles but did not take any ammunition.
One person was later found carrying a firearm and apprehended, authorities confirmed.
A banner reading ‘Justice for Nahel’ has been spotted along the race route at the start of the 1st stage of the 110th edition of the Tour de France, which kicks off in Bilbao, Spain today.
Organisers say they are ready to adapt to any situation when the three-week cycling race enters France on Monday.
The 2,115-mile race finishes in Paris on Sunday, 23 July.
Authorities in Marseille have announced that transport will stopped at 7pm local time in an effort to curb further unrest around the city.
Public events have also been cancelled or postponed, including the city’s Pride festival that was due to take place later today.
‘The police prefecture preferred to disengage from the security system to carry out other missions’, the organizers explained in a press release.
The funeral procession for Nahel M has officially begun.
Although his family wish to have a private service and have requested journalists stay away, people are already flocking to the funeral home to pay their respects
Although no public gatherings are planned to coincide with the funeral, spontaneous ones might occur.
A group of around 30 young men who stood guard at the entrance to the funeral parlour in Nanterre, asked people not to take pictures, a Reuters witness said.
‘We aren’t part of the family and didn’t know Nahel but we were very moved by what has happened in our town. So we wanted to express our condolences,’ one man among the mourners, who declined to give his name, told Reuters.
‘If you have the wrong skin colour, the police are much more dangerous to you,’ said a young man, who also declined to be named, adding that he was a friend of Nahel’s.
In Lille, five adults and a minor have been arrested in connection with an attack on the town hall, which was partly set on fire overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
The suspects, all male, were arrested at dawn on Saturday, Lille prosecutor Carole Etienne told AFP .
266 buildings, public and private, were damaged overnight, including 26 town halls, 24 schools and 5 justice establishments, French publication Ouest France reports.
The funeral of Nahel, the boy whose death sparked the current unrest after he was killed on Tuesday,, is set to take place early this afternoon.
It will take place in Nanterre, a suburb western Paris where the teenager was from, and will begin with a visitation, followed by a mosque ceremony and then burial, Associated Press reports.
Nahel’s family have urged journalists not to come to the funeral and appealed for calm.
The interior ministry has now confirmed that 1311 people were arrested across France last night.
French footballer Kylian Mbappé has called for an end to the ‘time of violence’ in a message on Twitter posted last night.
‘Violence solves nothing, especially when it inevitably turns against those who are expressing it,’ Mbappe posted on his Instagram story.
The PSG star also called for ‘peaceful and constructive’ protests.
Mbappe’s statement, apparently speaking on behalf of the France team, added: ‘Like all French people we were marked and shocked by the death of young Nahel.’
He added that the France players, many of whom come from working-class neighbourhoods like Nahel, share ‘the feelings of sadness and pain’ whicch have gripped the nation.
Despite the violence, interior minister Gerald Darmanin said last night’s riots were ‘calmer’ than those which had rocked the country in previous nights this week.
Mr Darmanin declared ‘it’s the republic that will win, not the rioters’ as he reported a ‘less intense’ evening in Paris but denounced ‘unacceptable violence in Lyon and Marseille’, which saw many arrests.
The minister also lamented the young age of many rioters, saying ’13-, 14-year-old kids … who obviously had better be at home rather than hanging out in the streets’.
He added that the government is ready to further increase its position of strength if ever things were to deteriorate, which was not the case last night.
Lyon and Grenoble were both subject to widespread looting last night, with a partial report stating 58 and 28 people were arrested in the two respective cities.
Violence was also reported in the Grenoble suburb of Echirolles.
Clashes between police and rioters reportedly continued late into the night, with gangs of young people often moving around or on scooters and firing dozens of mortars towards the police, who responded with tear gas canisters
Several vehicles were set on fire in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, where 17-year-old Nahel lived and was shot by police this week, triggering the riots.
Nahel’s funeral will take place later today.
The mayor of Nanterre, Patrick Jarry, said there was ‘great sadness and indignation’ at his death.
‘Today, the demand for justice dominates. The thousands of people who have expressed their anger want to be sure that justice will be done fairly,’ Mr Jarry told French outlet Le Monde.
‘We are faced with a particularly dramatic episode, a very difficult moment, which will force us to reflect on the conditions of intervention by the police… such as those which intervened on Tuesday morning by making use of their weapons against a teenager, in total violation of all legal provisions,’ he added.
The left-winger and former French Communist Party member also said ‘we must continue to surround’ Nahel’s mother.
France’s second-biggest city Marseille saw some of the most intense of last night’s action, with protestors and police attacking eachother with fireworks and tear-gas and a number of vehicles being torched.
88 people were arrested in the mediterrenean city and the Minister of the Interior has decided to send reinforcements, including a surveillance plane.
A major fire ‘linked to the riots’ also broke out in a supermarket, according to a police source.
‘In Marseille, the scenes of looting and rioting are unacceptable,’ city mayor Benoit Payan tweeted, calling on the state to send additional law enforcement.
Good morning and welcome to our fourth day of coverage of the rioting in Paris following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy by police. Here is a summary of the night’s events:
- Nearly 1000 people were arrested and 80 officers injured following a fourth night of unrest throughout France, although officials claim the situation was calmer than previous nights this week.
- 45,000 police officers were deployed across the country to clamp down on protestors, with demonstrations in Marseille and Lyon being reported as particularly chaotic.
- The riots have spilled over into Belgium and France’s iversea territories, with local media reporting 100 arrests in Brussels and demonstrations in French Guinea.
- The government has called on regional authorities to shut down overnight bus and tram services nationwide.