France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has said the coming hours “will be decisive” as violence triggered by the fatal police shooting of a teenager during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb flared for a fourth consecutive night, report The Guardian.
Darmanin said on TF1 television that 45,000 police officers, including special forces, would be deployed across France on Friday night, adding: “Entirely legitimate emotions can in no circumstances justify disorder and delinquency.”
Shops in several malls in Paris suburbs, as well as an Apple store in the centre of Strasbourg, were looted on Friday afternoon amid continuing rioting sparked by the shooting of Nahel M, 17, who was of north African descent, in Nanterre on Tuesday.
Bus and tram traffic was halted from 9pm across France. Marseille, France’s second-largest city, banned public demonstrations and said all public transport would stop at 7pm local time. Protests were also banned by authorities in Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulouse, Montpellier, Grenoble and Annecy.
However, at least 63 people were arrested in Marseille on Friday evening amid widespread disturbances. Several rifles were looted from a gun store, though no ammunition. In Lyon and surrounding suburbs about 20 people were arrested as rioters set cars ablaze and aimed fireworks at police.
Police in Paris said they had evacuated the Place de la Concorde after demonstrators gathered despite an overnight police ban on unauthorised gatherings at key city-centre sites including the Champs-Élysées and the Tuileries gardens. In the Rouen suburb of Le Petit-Quevilly, a young man died after falling from the roof of a supermarket in a shopping centre that was being pillaged.
“The next hours will be decisive and I know I can count on your efforts,” Darmanin told firefighters and police officers seeking to contain the unrest, adding: “The human and material reinforcements that we are currently sending will give you the means to defend the republic and its values.”