The fatal shooting of a 17-year-old teenager by a police officer has incensed France as the police made 150 arrests overnight during renewed rioting and angry protests while Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that some 40,000 police will be deployed across France as President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday urged calm.
Around 40,000 police will be deployed across France on Thursday to deal with any further protests, Darmanin said. Some 5,000 police will be deployed in and around Paris, he said after two nights of sometimes violent protests over the death of the 17-year-old, shot dead by police during a traffic stop.
Nahel M., 17, was shot in the chest at point-blank range in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday in an incident that has reignited debate in France about police tactics long criticized by rights groups.
Cars and bins were torched in parts of Paris and nationwide overnight, and protesters launched fireworks at riot police, who fired flashball projectiles to try to disperse the angry crowds. A tramway was also set alight in a Paris suburb.
"We are sick of being treated like this. This is for Nahel, we are Nahel," said two young men calling themselves "Avengers" as they wheeled rubbish bins from a nearby estate to add to a burning barricade in the capital.
Branding the overnight clashes "unjustifiable," Macron told a crisis meeting of ministers that the coming hours and an afternoon march in memory of Nahel in Nanterre should be marked by "contemplation and respect."
"The last few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations, but also schools and town halls... against institutions and the Republic," he said.
The violence is a deeply troubling development for Macron who had been looking to move past a half-year of sometimes violent protests that erupted over his controversial pension reform.
The teenager was killed as he pulled away from police who tried to pull him over for traffic infractions.
A video circulating on social media and authenticated by Agence France-Presse (AFP) showed two policemen 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.
Clashes first erupted as the video emerged, contradicting police accounts that the teenager was driving at the officer.
By Wednesday night anger had spread to Toulouse, Dijon and Lyon, as well as several other towns in the Paris region, where around 2,000 riot police had been deployed.
Interior Minister Darmanin wrote on Twitter as he announced the 150 arrests figure that the violence was "intolerable."
