875 arrested in France for protests over teen's death

Associated Press

Nanterre (France): Protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons in French streets overnight as tensions grew over the deadly police shooting of a 17-yearold that has shocked the nation. More than 875 people were arrested and at least 200 police officers injured as the government struggled to restore order on a third night of unrest.

Armored police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot the teen identified only by his first name, Nahel. A relative of the teen said his family is of Algerian descent. Nahel will be buried Saturday, according to Nanterre Mayor Patrick Jarry, who said the country needs to “push for changes” in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

“There’s a feeling of injustice in many residents’ minds, whether it’s about school achievement, getting a job, access to culture, housing and other life issues … I believe we are in that moment when we need to face the urgency (of the situation),” he said.

The unrest extended as far as Belgium’s capital, Brussels, where about a dozen people were detained during scuffles related to the shooting in France and several fires were brought under control. In several Paris neighborhoods, groups of people hurled firecrackers at security forces.

The police station in the city’s 12th district was attacked, while some shops were looted along Rivoli street, near the Louvre museum, and at the Forum des Halles, the largest shopping mall in central Paris. In the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, police sought to disperse violent groups in the city center, regional authorities said. Similar incidents broke out in dozens of towns and cities across France. Some 40,000 police officers were deployed to quell the protests.

National police said a total of 875 people were detained overnight, including 408 in the Paris region alone. Around 200 police officers were injured, according to a national police spokesperson. No information was available about injuries among the rest of the population. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Friday denounced what he called a night of “rare violence.”

His office described the arrests as a sharp increase on previous operations as part of an overall government effort to be “extremely firm” with rioters. The French government has stopped short of declaring a state of emergency — a measure taken to quell weeks of rioting around France that followed the accidental death of two boys fleeing police in 2005