French President Emmanuel Macron was poised to take charge of a critical meeting of ministers on Friday, following a tumultuous third consecutive night of nationwide protests triggered by the tragic police shooting of a teenager.
The demonstrations, which saw a wave of car burnings, looting of shops and numerous arrests, have reignited deep-seated grievances surrounding policing and racial profiling within France's economically disadvantaged and multicultural suburbs.
In response to the escalating unrest, Macron decided to curtail his visit to Brussels, where he attended an important European Union summit, and instead focus his attention on the violence by convening a crisis meeting.
This marked the second emergency gathering in as many days, highlighting the gravity of the situation.
To contain the mounting turmoil, approximately 40,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed throughout various cities overnight.
Elite units like Raid and GIGN were also mobilized, demonstrating the government's determination to restore order.
Stringent measures were implemented, including curfews in municipalities surrounding Paris and prohibitions on public gatherings in Lille and Tourcoing in the north of the country.
Despite the extensive security presence, reports of violence and destruction emerged from multiple locations.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin revealed that a staggering 667 individuals had been arrested during what he described as a night of "uncommon violence," while 249 police officers sustained injuries, fortunately, none of them serious.
Instead of confrontations between protesters and law enforcement, the night's events were characterized by rampant pillaging of shops, including notable establishments like flagship branches of Nike and Zara in Paris, according to police sources.
Public buildings also fell victim to the unrest, with a police station in the city of Pau, located in the Pyrenees region, being targeted with a Molotov cocktail.
Additionally, an elementary school and a district office were set ablaze in Lille.
The shooting of Nahel, which was captured on video during a routine traffic stop and led to his death, has sent shockwaves through France.
The ensuing memorial march for the 17-year-old, headed by Nahel's mother, Mounia, was met with tear gas fired by riot police as several cars were set on fire in Nanterre, the western Paris suburb where the teenager resided and tragically lost his life.
As authorities scrambled to restore calm, public transportation services in Paris, including buses and trams, were halted after 9 p.m. to minimize the potential for further unrest, as announced by the regional president.
However, these measures, along with heightened security measures, appeared to have limited impact in quelling the violence during Thursday night.
In Marseille's city center, a library fell victim to vandalism and nearby scuffles broke out when the police resorted to tear gas to disperse a group of approximately 100 to 150 individuals allegedly attempting to erect barricades.
Multiple public buildings were also targeted in Seine-Saint-Denis, a department in the Paris metropolitan area, according to a police source.
In Drancy, a suburb of Paris, rioters used a truck to forcefully breach the entrance of a shopping center, resulting in partial looting and subsequent arson.
Firefighters in the northern municipality of Roubaix worked tirelessly to extinguish numerous blazes throughout the night, with a hotel near the train station catching fire and forcing its occupants to flee.
The unrest in Nanterre, the epicenter of the protests, escalated around midnight as fireworks and explosives were set off in the Pablo Picasso district, where Nahel had resided.
The French government is acutely aware of the need to avoid a repeat of the urban riots that shook the nation in 2005 following the deaths of two boys of African origin during a police pursuit, which resulted in the arrest of 6,000 individuals.
Macron, emphasizing the importance of calm, denounced the violent protests as "unjustifiable."
These riots present a fresh challenge for Macron, who had been striving to move beyond the massive demonstrations that arose in response to a contentious increase in the retirement age.
Nahel met his tragic end as he attempted to drive away from police officers who were in the process of pulling him over for a traffic violation.
A video, authenticated by Agence France-Presse (AFP), depicted two officers standing beside the stationary car, with one officer aiming a weapon at the driver.
A voice can be heard uttering the chilling words, "You are going to get a bullet in the head." The officer then seemingly fired his weapon as the car abruptly sped away.
The release of the video sparked clashes as it contradicted the police's initial claim that the teenager was driving toward the officer.
The lawyer representing the officer, Laurent-Franck Lienard, disclosed during an interview with BFMTV that his client expressed remorse upon being taken into custody.
"The first words he uttered were to apologize, and his final words were to apologize to the family," Lienard said.
Earlier on Thursday, Nanterre's public prosecutor, Pascal Prache, stated that "the prosecution considers that the legal conditions for the use of the weapon" by the police officer who fired the fatal shot "are not met." The ongoing investigation will further shed light on the circumstances surrounding the tragic incident.
