Declining urban violence. The tensions triggered by the death of young Nahel, killed by a policeman on Tuesday in Nanterre during a roadside check, were a little less important on the night of Saturday July 1 to Sunday July 2, according to Gérald Darmanin. At 8 a.m., the Ministry of the Interior reported 719 arrests throughout the country and recalled that the day before, at the same time, there had been 994, then, in total, 1,311 for the night of Friday to Saturday. At this stage, 45 police and gendarmes have been injured, 577 vehicles and 74 buildings have been set on fire, while 871 fires have been recorded on public roads, the ministry added. Follow our live.
Extended reinforcements. For the second consecutive night, Gérald Darmanin renewed a system of 45,000 police and gendarmes, including 7,000 in Paris and the inner suburbs, and substantial reinforcements in Marseille and Lyon, the main cities affected the day before by the clashes, destruction or looting. On the famous Canebière in particular, large numbers of law enforcement, supported by the elite units of the Raid and the GIGN (gendarmerie) managed to disperse the groups of young people who had sown chaos the day before, noted AFP journalists.
Evacuations up to 2 hours on the Champs-Elysées. In Paris, a major system has been deployed along the Champs-Elysées. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 194 people had been arrested at 3:30 a.m. in Paris and its suburbs. Few serious incidents have been reported in the Parisian suburbs, the starting point of the riots. Police officers were however the target of fireworks mortars in Vigneux (Essonne) and the home of the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne) was attacked with a ram car.
Nahel buried on Saturday. The 17-year-old boy killed by the police was buried late Saturday afternoon in the Mont-Valérien cemetery in Nanterre in the presence of his mother, his grandmother and several hundred people during a ceremony “very calm, in meditation and without overflow”, reported a witness to AFP. In the morning, the atmosphere was very tense in front of the funeral home between groups of young people and the press, whose presence was not desired by the family.