PARIS: Looters broke into a gun shop in Marseille as France continued witnessing arrests and riots for a fourth night.
The authorities in France made hundreds of arrests as riots continued for a fourth night Friday. The country witnessed violent protests after a 17-year-old, Nahel M, was shot by police during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday.
In the aftermath, people took to streets on four consecutive night to protest, ransacking shops, setting cars ablaze and throwing stones and fireworks.
TF1 television quoted Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin as having said that 471 had already been arrested so far overnight, with more than 80 in Marseille.
According to police, looters broke into a shop selling guns in the city and ran off with several hunting rifles. Officers said one person was arrested nearby with one of the weapons.
Social media showed an explosion rocking Marseille’s old port area while the city authorities said they were investigating the incident and added they were, hwoever, not sure if there were any casualties.
Benoit Payan, the city mayor, has called for the national government to send additional law-enforces to the city, describing scenes of unacceptable “pillaging and violence”.
interior minister Darmanin, in a message to fire and police forces, said: “The next hours will be decisive and I know I can count on your flawless efforts.”
He said that 45,000 extra police officers, including paramilitary gendarmes, had been deployed across France on Friday – 5,000 more than the previous night and that though the level of violence was “unacceptable” the country was not yet at the point where the government felt it needed to declare a state of emergency.
Clashes were reported in several other cities, including Lyon in the southeast.
There were reports of looting earlier in Strasbourg in broad daylight, including from an Apple store and several supermarkets.
In central Paris, police dispersed a group of protesters from the Place de la Concorde, while fires started in other parts of the capital.
Fireworks are set of in the streets of Lyon as unrest continue and hundreds of people have been arrested with riots taking place all over France.
French football superstar Kylian Mbappe, who previously described Nahel’s death as an “unacceptable situation”, has also appealed for calm. “Violence solves nothing… There are other peaceful and constructive ways to express yourself. It is in this that our energies and our thoughts must be concentrated,” he wrote on Twitter. “The time of violence must end to give way to that of mourning, dialogue and reconstruction.”
