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A shop window was vandalized with spray paint reading ‘Justice for Nahel’ after a night of clashes, in the center of Marseille, France, on Sunday. Violence broke out across France over the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old teenager by a police officer during a traffic stop in Nanterre. Photo by Orianne Ciantar/EPA-EFE
July 2 (UPI) — French police arrested over 700 people as riots continued for the fifth night in the wake of the shooting death of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who was killed by police during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb.
France’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that 719 people were arrested and 45 police officers and gendarmes, a form of militarized police in France, were injured.
Officials have mobiles 45,000 police and gendarmes along with thousands of firefighters to “protect and guarantee” order in the nation, the Interior Ministry said.
France’s Prefecture Police, a third form of national police in Paris, has authorized officers to record rioters with drones through 6 a.m. on Monday.
Officials said that police made 375 searches along Paris’ Champs-Élysées Avenue and made 37 arrests for people carrying weapons. Police shared images of the weapons, which included brass knuckles and possible incendiary devices.
At least 577 vehicles and 74 buildings have been torched as rioters lit at least 871 different fires in Paris on Saturday night, The Guardian reported.
Local police in the region that includes the southern French city of Marseilles said that 71 people were arrested overnight Sunday including “many looters.”
However, the Interior Ministry noted that police actions “made it possible to experience a calmer night.”
Nahel Merzouk’s grandmother Nadia urged the rioters to “stop destroying” and said they were using her grandson’s death “as an excuse” to cause damage in remarks to BFMTV.
In one of the most serious incidents, L’Haÿ-les-Roses Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun said in a statement that rioters slammed a burning car into his home about nine miles south of Paris around 1:30 a.m. — injuring his wife and one of his two children.
France’s Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne called the attack on Jeanbrun’s family “unacceptable” and said that those responsible would be “prosecuted with the greatest firmness.”
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