PARIS: France’s government is set to explore “all options” to restore order as the country witnessed widespread unrest and violent clashes for the third consecutive night since the fatal shooting of a teenager by the police during a traffic stop. The nationwide riots resulted in hundreds of injuries, including police officers, and numerous arrests, with buildings set on fire and stores looted.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who significantly increased police deployments to 40,000 officers on Thursday night in an attempt to quell the unrest, announced on Twitter that 667 arrests had been made. Authorities reported that 249 police officers were injured in the clashes.
President Emmanuel Macron cut short his participation in a European Union summit in Brussels and returned to Paris to attend a cabinet crisis meeting. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne stated that the government would consider all options to restore order and referred to the violence as “intolerable and inexcusable” in a tweet. During a visit to a Paris suburb, Borne further emphasized the importance of national unity and the need to restore order.
Violence Erupts in Various Cities of France
Violence erupted in various cities, including Marseille, Lyon, Pau, Toulouse, Lille, and parts of Paris, including the suburb of Nanterre where 17-year-old Nahel M, of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was shot dead on Tuesday. His death has reignited longstanding grievances regarding police violence and systemic racism within law enforcement agencies, voiced by rights groups and residents of low-income, racially diverse suburbs surrounding major cities in France.
Social media videos showed numerous urban areas engulfed in flames throughout the country. In Lyon, a tram was set ablaze, and in Aubervilliers, northern Paris, a depot was targeted, resulting in the destruction of 12 buses. The adjacent Aubervilliers aquatic center, slated for Olympic training in 2024, sustained minor damage. In Nanterre, following a peaceful vigil held in memory of the deceased teenager, protesters set cars on fire, erected barricades, and clashed with the police.
In central Paris, at the Chatelet Les Halles shopping mall, a Nike shoe store was broken into, and several individuals were arrested after windows of stores on the neighboring Rue de Rivoli were smashed, according to Paris police. Transport Minister Clement Beaune did not rule out the possibility of shutting down the capital’s public transport network.
Several Casino supermarkets were reportedly looted across the country, according to a source cited by Reuters. In Geneva, the United Nations rights office emphasized the importance of peaceful assembly and called on French authorities to ensure that police use of force is legal, proportionate, and non-discriminatory. The UN spokesperson urged France to address deeply rooted issues of racism and racial discrimination within law enforcement.
President Macron has denied the existence of “systemic racism” within the police force. The police officer who admitted to firing the lethal shot at the teenager has been placed under formal investigation for voluntary homicide, and his lawyer claims that the officer had intended to shoot at the driver’s leg but was jostled, resulting in the shot to the chest.
The unrest has evoked memories of the nationwide riots that occurred in 2005, prompting then-President Jacques Chirac to declare a state of emergency. Those riots originated in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois following the deaths of two young men who were accidentally electrocuted in a power substation while evading the police.
