The riots were sparked by the death of a 17-year-old man of North African descent who was shot dead by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday. Nahel M. will be buried this Saturday in his hometown of Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. The roads leading to the cemetery will be cordoned off.
There were no buses into Nanterre in the morning. It was silent. A group of about 30 young people stood guard at the entrance to the funeral home. They asked people not to take pictures. Police could not be seen as mourners gathered at a nearby mosque. “We are not part of the family and we didn’t know Nahel, but we were very moved by what happened in our city”, said one of the young people. “So we wanted to express our condolences.”
During the night there were violent riots not only in Paris, but also in Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Lille. According to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, 45,000 police were on duty across the country, 5,000 more than the day before. More than 2,000 people have been arrested since the unrest began, and the average age is 17, according to Darmanin. According to official figures, 200 police officers were injured. An estimated 2,000 vehicles were set on fire, several buildings were engulfed in flames, and dozens of stores were looted.
According to official information, 80 people were arrested overnight in Marseille alone. Many people of North African descent live in France’s second largest city. Images circulating on social media show an explosion in the old port area. City officials said they were investigating the cause. However, it is not assumed that there were casualties. In the city center, protesters looted a gun shop and stole some hunting rifles but no ammunition, police said. A person with a weapon suspected of theft was arrested and the store is now under police surveillance.
Marseille Mayor Benoit Payan called on the government to immediately deploy additional security forces. “Scenes of looting and violence are unacceptable,” he wrote on Twitter late on Friday.
In Lille, France’s third-largest city, police used armored vehicles and a helicopter. In Paris, police cleared the Place de la Concorde, the largest square in the capital, on Friday night. A large number of people gathered there for a protest demonstration.
The outbreak of violence has plunged President Emmanuel Macron and his government into the worst crisis since the 2018 yellow vest protests. “We do not rule out any hypothesis and we will see what the President of the Republic decides after tonight”, he told TF1 on Friday night.
Many people from poor and multi-ethnic neighborhoods feel disadvantaged and neglected by the government. Complaints about police violence and racism have been piling up for a long time. The riots are reminiscent of street battles in 2005, which lasted for three weeks. At that time, two young men in Paris, fleeing the police, hid in a transformer house and died from an electric shock. President Jacques Chirac felt compelled to declare a state of emergency.
Nahel M., who has Moroccan and Algerian roots, was shot dead by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday. Video of the incident was shared on social media. The officer admitted to shooting the young man when he continued to drive the car despite being checked. His lawyer, Laurent-Franck Lienard, said his client aimed for the driver’s leg but was hit as the car started, prompting him to shoot himself in the chest. “Obviously he didn’t want to kill the driver,” Lienard told BFM television. The policeman is under arrest. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the suspicion of manslaughter.