(Nanterre) The wave of violence triggered in France by the death of Nahel, 17, killed by a police officer on Tuesday near Paris during a traffic check, marked time in the night from Saturday to Sunday, a few hours after the funeral of the teenager away from the cameras.
As of 3:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m. EST) in the morning, the Interior Ministry had not identified any major incidents and reported 486 arrests nationwide, including for carrying objects. capable of being used as weapons or projectiles.
“Quieter night thanks to the resolute action of the police”, rejoiced the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin on his Twitter account.
For the second night in a row, the Minister had 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 clashes, destruction or looting. .
Few incidents were reported in these two cities.
Seized by an amateur video that contradicted the initial story given by the police, the point-blank shooting of a biker and the death of young Nahel during a road check in Nanterre, on the outskirts of the capital, shocked until the summit of the state, set the country ablaze and resonated well beyond the French borders and particularly in Algeria, the country of origin of his family.
In this climate, French President Emmanuel Macron announced to his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Saturday the postponement of his state visit scheduled for Sunday evening to Tuesday.
Macron calls mayors
The question of the state of emergency remains raised and monitored abroad, especially since France is hosting the Rugby World Cup in the fall, then the Olympic Games in Paris in the summer of 2024.
This wave of violence and the anger of many young residents of working-class neighborhoods against the police or the state recalled the riots that shook France in 2005, after the death of two teenagers pursued by the police.
Emmanuel Macron made a series of phone calls on Saturday afternoon to mayors of the country, worried about the spiral of violence which is shaking the country.
In Marseille, on the Canebière, main artery of the second city of France, large numbers of police, supported by 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.
PHOTO CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A goods truck burned in the Flamants district, north of Marseille
“We are not witnessing yesterday’s looting scenes at all,” commented the Bouches-du-Rhône police headquarters, counting 56 arrests around midnight.
In Paris, an important device has been deployed along the Champs-Élysées, where calls to gather have been circulating since Friday on social networks, noted an AFP journalist.
All along the avenue, small groups of young people dressed in black strolled under the eyes of CRS in front of the shops, whose storefronts were protected with wooden planks. Behind black railings, the famous Le Fouquet’s restaurant normally welcomed its customers for dinner.
The last groups were evacuated by 2 a.m. (8 p.m. EST).
Few serious incidents have been reported in the Parisian suburbs, the starting point of the riots. Police officers were however the target of mortar fireworks in Vigneux, in the southern suburbs of Paris. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 194 people had been arrested at 2:30 a.m. (8:30 p.m. Eastern time) in Paris and its suburbs.
In the night from Friday to Saturday, the police had made more than 1,300 arrests, a record figure since Tuesday.
PHOTO ROMAIN PERROCHEAU, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This bus shelter was vandalized during a demonstration in Bordeaux.
In an attempt to stem the spiral of violence, many municipalities have instituted a curfew and public transport networks have been closed earlier than expected, in particular that of buses and trams in the Paris region from 9 p.m.
On Saturday, Nahel was buried at the end of the afternoon in Nanterre in the presence of his mother, his grandmother and several hundred people during a ceremony “very calm, in meditation and without overflow”, a 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, noted AFP journalists.
“Come to break”
“Peace to his soul, may justice be done”, launched on condition of anonymity to AFP a Nanterrian woman leaving the funeral home. “I came to support the mother, she only had him, poor thing”.
“They came especially to break, steal and leave”, lamented in Marseille a trader from the Merlan shopping center, Youcef Bettahar, “we are really disgusted with what is happening”.
During the night from Friday to Saturday, 1,350 vehicles were set on fire, 266 buildings were set on fire or damaged, including 26 town halls and 24 schools, and 2,560 fires recorded on public roads, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Police and gendarmerie buildings were the target of attacks, 79 policemen and gendarmes were injured. “The next person who touches a police officer or a gendarme must know that they will be found”, warned Gérald Darmanin on Saturday evening.
The 38-year-old policeman who fired the shot that killed Nahel was indicted for intentional homicide and remanded in custody on Thursday afternoon.