Death of Nahel M.: Over 1,300 arrested during Friday night riots (2024)

French police arrested 1,311 people nationwide during a fourth consecutive night of rioting over the killing of a teenager by police, the Interior Ministry said Saturday, July 1. France had deployed 45,000 officers overnight backed by light armored vehicles and crack police units to quell the violence over the death of 17-year-old Nahel, killed during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb on Tuesday.

Captured by an amateur video that contradicts the initial account given by the police, the point-blank shooting by a police motorcyclist continued to spark riots that have set many of the country's working-class neighborhoods ablaze. The 17-year-old victim, of Algerian descent, is due to be buried on Saturday in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris.

Despite the security presence, looting took place Friday night in the cities of Marseille, Lyon and Grenoble, with bands of often-hooded rioters pillaging shops. Protesters also set fire to cars and trash bins. But during a visit to Mantes-la-Jolie west of Paris, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said early Saturday morning that the night's violence had been of "much less intensity."

Provisional ministry numbers released early Saturday also included 1,350 vehicles and 234 buildings torched, and 2,560 incidents of fire set in public spaces.

'The time for violence must end'

The French national football team joined calls for an end to the violence. "The time of violence must give way to that of mourning, dialogue and reconstruction," the team said in a statement posted on social media by captain and Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappé. Les Bleus said they were "shocked by the brutal death of young Nahel" but asked that violence give way to "other peaceful and constructive ways of expressing oneself".s.

The gendarmerie deployed armored vehicles and continued to use elite units such as the GIGN to reduce the tensions of the previous night (492 buildings targeted, 2,000 vehicles burned and dozens of stores looted, despite the arrest of almost 900 people).

Dozens of police vans were positioned near the entrance to the Vieux Pont district in Nanterre, while others were stationed on the outskirts of the Les Halles shopping district in the heart of Paris, the scene of looting the previous night, according to AFP journalists on the scene.

Again on Friday afternoon, scattered incidents broke out in Rosny-sous-Bois and a shopping center in Créteil, near Paris, as well as in downtown Strasbourg, where an Apple Store was vandalized and eleven people arrested.

Marseille rocked by clashes

The southern port city of Marseille was again the scene of clashes and looting from the centre and further north in the long-neglected working-class neighborhoods that President Emmanuel Macron visited at the start of the week.

Around 2:00 am, Marseille police said they had made 88 arrests overnight of often masked and "very mobile" young people accused of looting or trying to. A major fire "linked to the riots" broke out in a supermarket, according to a police source.

"In Marseille, the scenes of looting and rioting are unacceptable," city mayor Benoît Payan tweeted, calling on the state to send additional law enforcement. Darmanin shortly afterwards announced on Twitter that "significant reinforcements are arriving at the moment".

Looting and clashes between hooded protesters and police also occurred in parts of Grenoble, Saint-Etienne and Lyon, while in Angers and Tours in the country's west, there were only a few groups facing the police.

The Paris region was not spared the flames, with Colombes in the northwest suburbs enveloped in a strong smell of burning and with firefighters there extinguishing a car that had been set alight, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. In Nanterre, nine people were arrested carrying jerry cans and Molotov co*cktails. In Saint-Denis, an administrative centre was affected by a fire, and in Val-d'Oise, the Persan-Beaumont town hall and municipal police station caught fire and were partly destroyed.

'How many Nahels have not been filmed?'

To avoid a fourth consecutive night of violence, Darmanin also asked prefects to stop buses and trams throughout France after 9:00 pm. On Friday, the administrative court validated the curfew introduced in Clamart, clearing the way for other communes to introduce similar measures. After Clamart and Meudon, other communes are introducing curfews, including Chalon-sur-Saône, Tourcoing, Amiens and five towns in the Bordeaux area.

Demonstrations "against racism, crime and police violence" were also banned on Friday evening in Paris, central Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Toulouse. But several hundred people still marched, notably in Montpellier, carrying placards reading "Let's disband the police, how many Nahels were not filmed?"

The government has also decided to cancel "large-scale" events, including Mylène Farmer's concerts at the Stade de France on Friday and Saturday. Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti called for a "rapid, firm and systematic" penal response to the perpetrators of urban violence, as well as their parents.

Pointing the finger at the youth of many of the rioters, President Emmanuel Macron called on "all parents to take responsibility," criticizing the "instrumentalization" of Nahel's death and calling on social networks to "remove" content and identify their users.

State of emergency

The question of the state of emergency is being scrutinized abroad, especially as France hosts the Rugby World Cup in the fall, followed by the Olympic Games in Paris in the summer of 2024. Britain and other European countries warned their citizens to avoid riot zones.

Since the death of Nahel – an out-of-school teenager turned delivery boy – schools and public buildings have been targeted by the anger of young residents of working-class neighborhoods and set on fire in numerous French towns, recalling the riots that shook France in 2005 after the death of two teenagers pursued by the police.

This time, the spark was the tragedy that occurred on Tuesday near the Nanterre-Préfecture RER station, not far from the La Défense business center, during a police check on the car driven by Nahel, a minor known for refusing to yield to police.

The 38-year-old policeman who fired the shot was charged with voluntary manslaughter and remanded in custody on Thursday afternoon.

In her first media interview since the shooting, the teen's mother, Mounia, told France 5 television on Thursday: "I don't blame the police, I blame one person: the one who took the life of my son." She said the 38-year-old officer responsible, who was detained and charged with voluntary manslaughter, "saw an Arab face, a little kid, and wanted to take his life".