Australians in France cautioned to stay ‘particularly vigilant’ amid threat of terror attacks
Australians are warned to keep a ‘high degree of caution’ amid nationwide riots, which French President Emmanuel Macron has blamed on TikTok, video games and bad parenting.
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Australians in France have been warned to “exercise a high degree of caution” after the third consecutive day of riots, which President Emmanuel Macron has blamed on bad parenting, TikTok and video games.
In a July 1 update to its safety advice, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warned travellers to be “particularly vigilant” throughout the entire country, not just Paris, “due to the threat of terrorism.”
“Riots have occurred across France which have turned violent, leading to the destruction of property including vehicles, shops, police stations and schools,” its latest travel advice said.
“Clashes with police have occurred, resulting in the use of tear gas and arrests,” the warning continued. “Avoid all demonstrations and areas with significant police activity. Curfews have been introduced in some cities. Public transport may be restricted or cancelled. The situation may change at short notice.”
The travel warning comes as President Macron called on parents and social media companies to crack down on “very young” rioters drunk on video game violence that is being propagated through TikTok and Snapchat.
In a remarkable address to the nation, the French leader rejected claims of racism and called the riots an “unacceptable exploitation” of the 17-year-old’s death.
He called on parents to take “responsibility” for underage rioters, one-third of whom were “young or very young” participants “experiencing on the street the video games that have intoxicated them”.
He added Snapchat and TikTok would be contacted in an attempt to have social networks help kerb “copycat violence”.
About 3,880 fires started nationwide in the latest night of unrest, burning 2,000 vehicles and causing damage to 492 structures, according to government figures.
The French Interior Ministry numbers announced a ban on sales of large fireworks and inflammable liquids, and extended a halt to bus and tram services from Paris to the rest of the nation.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said armoured vehicles belonging to the French gendarmerie law-enforcement units would be deployed against rioters.
“Depending on the situation, large-scale events requiring personnel and potentially posing risks to public order” would be cancelled, her office added.
One such cancellation hit two concerts by the popular singer Mylene Farmer, planned for Friday and Saturday at the Stade de France stadium north of central Paris.
France was rocked by successive nights of protests since teen Nahel was shot point-blank during a traffic stop captured on video.
In her first media interview since the shooting, Nahel’s mother, Mounia, told France 5 television that she does not “blame the police”.
“I blame one person: the one who took the life of my son,” she said.
A 38-year-old officer responsible was detained and charged with voluntary manslaughter on Thursday.
Nahel is set to be buried in a ceremony on Saturday, and the government is desperate to avoid a repeat of 2005’s weeks-long urban riots, sparked by the death of two boys of African origin in a police chase, during which 6,000 people were arrested.
CLASHES ERUPT IN PARIS
French President Emmanuel Macron was to lead a crisis meeting of ministers on Friday after a third night of protests over a policeman’s killing of a teen saw cars torched, shops ransacked and hundreds arrested.
Police sources said that rather than pitched battles between protesters and police, the night was marked by pillaging of shops, reportedly including flagship branches of Nike and Zara in Paris.
Public buildings were also targeted, with a police station in the Pyrenees city of Pau hit with a Molotov cocktail, according to regional authorities, and an elementary school and a district office set on fire in Lille.
The unrest has come in response to the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Nahel, whose death has revived longstanding grievances about policing and racial profiling in France’s low-income and multiethnic suburbs.
The Elysee announced Macron would cut short a trip to Brussels, where he was attending a European Union summit, to chair a crisis meeting on the violence -- the second such emergency talks in as many days.
Around 40,000 police and gendarmes -- along with elite Raid and GIGN units -- were deployed in several cities overnight, with curfews issued in municipalities around Paris and bans on public gatherings in Lille and Tourcoing in the country’s north.
Despite the massive security deployment, violence and damage were reported in multiple areas.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 667 people had been arrested in what he described as a night of violence, while 249 police officers were injured, none of them seriously.
On Thursday, thousands of people joined a march led by the mother of Nahel in Nanterre, with many chanting “Justice for Nahel” as they walked through the streets, and clashes between protesters and police erupting on the sidelines.
It came after pictures emerged of burning, overturned vehicles in the street and people running from tear gas. One image shows a protester hurling a rock, while footage appears to show police officers injured.
Laurent-Franck Lienard, the lawyer of the police officer charged with voluntary homicide, told French radio station RTL that his client discharged his firearm “in full compliance of the law”.
“He did not act outside the legal framework,” Lienard said.
He also said the officer is going through an “extremely difficult time” following the incident.
“Having devoted his life to protecting people and ensuring the law is respected, he is now being detained for having had to use his firearm as part of his job, he said.
“Having devoted his life to protecting people and ensuring the law is respected, he is now being detained for having had to use his firearm as part of his job.”
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne addressed the latest unrest, between march attendees and the police, and called for calm, telling rioters: “Destroying your own neighbourhood … won’t solve anything. The investigation is ongoing … let’s allow it to continue peacefully.”
In 2016, in a Paris housing estate, a male officer suffered serious burns and was put in an induced coma after a group of youths pelted petrol bombs at his patrol car.
Police unions protested and demanded a strong response from the government. Following that incident, the law on use of firearms by police was amended, the BBC reports.
Officers were allowed to shoot when faced with one of five situations – one being when a driver ignores an order to stop, and is likely to pose a risk to the life or physical safety of other people.
Critics say that this amendment – on the basis of which the teen Nahel M was shot and killed – makes the law much too vague, as it leaves an officer to determine whether the driver’s refusal to comply poses a risk.
The law has also been linked to the deaths of 13 people killed by French police after traffic stops in 2022.
But Bernard Cazeneuve, the French former interior minister who approved the law, has defended the legislation, saying “it does not at all give officers permission to shoot whenever”.
With AFP
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