Riots erupted for a fourth night across France over the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Nahel M., who was laid to rest on Saturday.
More than 1,300 people were arrested overnight throughout the country, according to the French Ministry of the Interior, as cars and buildings were set ablaze and stores looted. The damage was widespread, from Paris to Marseille and Lyon, with about 2,500 fires set, officials said.
Dozens of police officers and firefighters were injured overnight, as some 45,000 police officers were deployed in France to quell potential violence, officials said. It’s unclear how many protesters were injured.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters that 45,000 police and gendarmes will again be mobilized Saturday evening. Some 200 riot police were also being mobilized in Marseille, Darmanin tweeted late Saturday. Television footage showed tear gas and officers in the streets as night fell in the port city.
The violent unrest in France kicked off after the teen was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic check in the northwestern Paris suburb Nanterre on Tuesday morning.
Lawyers for the victim’s family, who have roots in Algeria, identified him as Nahel M. A funeral for Nahel was held on Saturday in Nanterre. Mourners gathered at a mosque and on the street outside the cemetery to pay their respects.
Amid the unrest, the French government canceled large-scale events around the country on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron appealed to parents to keep their children at home, noting that many of the protesters are young people.
On Saturday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s office said Macron called to postpone what would have been the first state visit by a French president to Germany in nearly two dozen years, The Associated Press reported.
The officer who shot and killed the teen has been detained on suspicion of voluntary homicide amid an ongoing investigation into the incident, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
