Around 2,000 police deployed in and around Paris, amid growing anger at shooting of 17-year-old in Nanterre during traffic stop
Police have arrested at least 77 people in Paris and the surrounding suburbs, according to local reports, during a second night of protests, as unrest spread across France following the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop.
Around 2,000 riot police were deployed in and around Paris on Wednesday night as protesters launched fireworks at police and set cars ablaze in the suburb of Nanterre outside the capital.
Police also clashed with protesters in the northern city of Lille and in Toulouse in the south-west. There were also disturbances in Amiens, Dijon and the Essonne administrative department south of the French capital, a police spokesperson said.
French media reported incidents in numerous locations across the greater Paris region. Videos on social media showed dozens of fireworks being directed at the Montreuil town hall, on the eastern edge of Paris.
The use of lethal force by officers against the teenager, named only as Nahel, who was of north African origin, has fed into a deep-rooted perception of police brutality in the ethnically diverse areas of France’s biggest cities.
“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. One said his family had lived in France for three generations but “they are never going to accept us”.
In the 18th and 19th districts of north-eastern Paris, police fired flash-balls to disperse protesters who were burning rubbish. The crowd responded by throwing bottles.
In the Essonne region south of the capital, a bus was set on fire after all the passengers were forced off, police said, while in Clamart a tram was set on fire.
In Toulouse, several cars were torched and responding police and firefighters pelted with projectiles.
Earlier, President Emmanuel Macron called for calm and told reporters: “We have an adolescent that was killed, it is unexplainable and inexcusable. Nothing justifies the death of a young man.” His remarks were unusually frank in a country where senior politicians are often reticent to criticise police given voters’ security concerns.
The teenager had been driving a car on Tuesday morning when he was pulled over for breaking traffic rules, prosecutors said.
Police initially reported that one officer had shot at the teenager because he was driving his car at him. But this version of events was quickly contradicted by a video circulating on social media that was authenticated by French news agencies.
A police officer is now being investigated for voluntary homicide for shooting the youth, and France’s human rights ombudsman has opened an inquiry.
Rights groups allege systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies in France, a charge Macron has previously denied.
Yassine Bouzrou, a lawyer for the boy’s family, said: “You have a video that is very clear: a police officer killed a young man of 17 years. You can see that the shooting is not within the rules.” The family has filed a legal complaint against the officers for homicide, complicity in homicide and false testimony, the lawyer said.
Lawmakers held a minute’s silence in the National Assembly, where prime minister Elisabeth Borne said the shooting “seems clearly not to comply with the rules”.
In a video shared on TikTok, a woman identified as the victim’s mother called for a memorial march in Nanterre on Thursday. “Everyone come, we will lead a revolt for my son,” she said.
Tuesday’s killing was the third fatal shooting during traffic stops in France so far in 2023. Last year there were a record 13 such shootings, a spokesperson for the national police said.
There were three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020, according to a Reuters tally, which shows the majority of victims since 2017 were Black or of Arab origin.
Two leading police unions fought back against the criticism, saying the detained police officer should be presumed innocent until found otherwise.