France explodes ahead of police victim Nahel’s funeral

Crack police units made nearly 1,000 arrests as France braced for more riots ahead of the funeral of the teenager killed during a traffic stop.

Riot police face protesters, with the Grande Arche de la Defence seen in the background. Picture: AFP

Violence and looting hit France in a fourth night of protests as massively deployed police made nearly 1,000 arrests and the country braced for more riots ahead of the funeral Saturday of the teenager who was killed by an officer during a traffic stop.

The interior ministry reported 994 arrests nationwide overnight, and 79 injuries among police and gendarmes – more than on any night since the protests began Tuesday, sparked by the death of 17-year-old Nahel by a police bullet.

Provisional ministry numbers released early Saturday also included 1,350 vehicles and 234 buildings torched, and 2,560 incidents of fire set in public spaces.

The clashes continued despite France deploying 45,000 officers, the highest number of any night since the start of the protests, backed by light armoured vehicles and elite police units.

They were unable to stop looting in the cities of Marseilles, Lyon and Grenoble, with bands of often-hooded rioters pillaging shops.

Despite rain pouring down on Paris and its suburbs since the small hours of Saturday, rioting also flared up there, with close to half the nationwide arrests, 406, made in and around the capital, a police source told AFP.

But during a visit to Mantes-la-Jolie west of Paris on Saturday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin maintained that the night’s violence had been of “much less intensity”.

Firefighters extinguish a car on fire in Nantes, western France. Picture: AFP.

Darmanin had announced an “exceptional” deployment of police and gendarmes to deal with the riots over the death of Nahel, who will be buried on Saturday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre where he lived and died.

Dozens of police vans were positioned not far from the entrance to the Vieux Pont district of Nanterre, which was the epicentre of the unrest, and nine people had been arrested for carrying Molotov cocktails and petrol canisters.

The French national football team joined calls for an end to the clashes. “The time of violence must give way to that of mourning, dialogue and reconstruction,” the team said in a statement posted on social media by captain and Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe.

Les Bleus said they were “shocked by the brutal death of young Nahel” but asked that violence give way to “other peaceful and constructive ways of expressing oneself”.

The southern port city of Marseilles was again the scene of clashes and looting from the centre and further north in the long-neglected low-income neighbourhoods that President Emmanuel Macron visited at the start of the week.

French anti riot police officers watch a truck burn in Nantes. Picture: AFP.

Marseilles police said the rioters and looters were “very mobile” young people who often wore masks.

A major fire “linked to the riots” broke out in a supermarket, according to a police source.

Marseilles mayor Benoit Payan called for law enforcement backup from the central government to cope.

Looting and clashes between hooded protesters and police also occurred in parts of Grenoble, Saint-Etienne and Lyon.

Buses and trams in France have stopped running after 9.00pm (1900 GMT) after several were destroyed in recent days, and the sale of large fireworks and inflammable liquids has been banned.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also announced the cancellation of large-scale events across the country, which included two concerts this weekend by hugely popular singer Mylene Farmer at the Stade de France venue.

Macron chairs crisis meeting

Earlier, crack police units and other security forces fanned out across the country to quell violence and rioting over the shooting, which took place during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb on Tuesday.

Mr Macron, after rushing back from an EU summit to chair a crisis meeting, denounced the “unacceptable exploitation of a death of an adolescent” in some quarters.

There had been “unacceptable exploitation of a death of an adolescent” in some quarters, Macron said after rushing back from an EU summit to chair a second crisis meeting in two days.

Under fierce scrutiny at home and abroad, Macron has attempted to strike a balance between pressure for a harsh response and fears of triggering a stronger backlash.

“Additional means” would be mobilised by the interior ministry beyond the 40,000 officers deployed nationwide on Thursday, Macron said.

That force failed to prevent 492 structures being damaged, 2000 vehicles being burned and 3880 fires started nationwide, according to government figures.

Interior ministry numbers on Friday detailed 875 arrests overnight, while 249 police officers were injured, none of them seriously.

The ministry later said it would extend nationwide a 9pm halt to Paris’s bus and tram services, and ban sales of large fireworks and inflammable liquids.

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 write-off hit two concerts by the popular singer Mylene Farmer, planned for Friday and Saturday at the Stade de France stadium north of central Paris.

Countries including Britain and Austria updated their travel advice to warn tourists away.

‘Very young’ rioters

Macron said the government “calls on parents to take responsibility” for underage rioters, one-third of whom were “young or very young”.

And he vowed to work with social networks to curb “copycat violence” spread through services like TikTok and Snapchat – as well as saying some participants were “experiencing on the street the video games that have intoxicated them”.

France has been rocked by successive nights of protests since Nahel was shot point-blank on Tuesday during a traffic stop captured on video.

In her first media interview since the shooting, Nahel’s mother, Mounia, told France 5 television: “I don’t blame the police, I blame one person: the one who took the life of my son.” She said the 38-year-old officer responsible, who was detained and charged with voluntary manslaughter on Thursday, “saw an Arab face, a little kid, and wanted to take his life”.

Nahel is set to be buried in a ceremony on Saturday, the mayor of his Paris suburb Nanterre said.

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 6000 people were arrested.

The UN rights office said Friday that the killing of the teen of North African descent was “a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and racial discrimination in law enforcement”, a charge rejected by France as “totally unfounded”.

On Thursday, two major police unions said they were “at war” with rioters, who they likened to “vermin”.

They threatened the government with “resistance” unless officers are granted still greater legal protection and more resources in future.

“This text is an appeal for civil war,” Greens party leader Marine Tondelier tweeted in response.

‘Bullet in the head’

After a third night of car torching and shops being ransacked as well as hundreds of arrests, calls have grown from the conservative and far-right opposition to give authorities increased powers.

Despite a massive security deployment, violence and damage were reported in multiple areas.

The Paris region’s bus and tram lines remained “severely disrupted” on Friday, the RATP transport operator said, after a dozen vehicles were torched overnight in a depot and some routes were blocked or damaged.

Nahel was killed as he pulled away from police who had stopped him for a traffic infraction.

A video, authenticated by AFP, showed two police officers standing by the side of the stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at the driver.

A voice is heard saying: “You are going to get a bullet in the head.” The police officer then appears to fire as the car abruptly drives off. The officer’s lawyer, Laurent-Franck Lienard, told BFM television late Thursday that his client had apologised as he was taken into custody.

“The first words he pronounced were to say sorry, and the last words he said were to say sorry to the family,” Lienard said.