Protesters demonstrating the police killing of a 17-year-old threw fireworks at a prison in Fresnes, south of Paris, amid ongoing civil unrest in France.
About 20 young men attacked the prison's entrance with fireworks and projectiles on Thursday, AFP reported. Videos shared online showed chaos as shops and cars were set ablaze in some areas, according to BBC News. Other videos showed an alarm sounding during the prison attack. Many protesters also threw fireworks into police stations.
Suburbs of Paris saw multiple clashes, but the most extreme confrontations took place in the western suburb of Nanterre, where the teen was fatally shot. Le Monde reported that local authorities had to partially withdraw.
The teen, named only as Nahel M., was shot Tuesday morning as he seemed to refuse to comply with a traffic stop. Initial police reports said he attempted to plow into officers. AFP said video showed that the teen was shot in the chest at point-blank range.
French prosecutors said the officer, who is under formal investigation for voluntary homicide, had no right to open fire.
The teen's death sparked mass protest across the country, where at least 180 people were arrested on the second night of unrest.
Violence also erupted in the Pablo Picasso district, where young protesters took to the streets, with one person yelling "death to cops!" as a number of cars and garbage bins were set on fire, according to the BBC.
The southwestern city of Toulouse and cities in the north also saw unrest, and disturbances were reported in Amiens, Dijon, Saint-Etienne and outside of Lyon in the southeast.
President Emmanuel Macron said setting fire to town halls, schools and police stations was "unjustifiable." He called in an emergency Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss the unrest.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that France had witnessed "a night of unbearable violence," according to the BBC, and added that "the state must be firm in its response." Darmanin said 40,000 police officers would be deployed across the country to control the situation and prevent violence from escalating.
The death of the teen, who is of Algerian descent, was the third fatal shooting during traffic stops in France in 2023 after a record 13 in 2022, according to local reports. There were three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020, according to Reuters. The news agency reported that most of those killed by police in traffic stops since 2017 were Black or of Arab origin.
The mass anger stemming from Nahel's death is reminiscent of Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in the U.S. after George Floyd, who was Black, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Officer Derek Chauvin suffocated Floyd by kneeling on his neck. Protests broke out across the country with demonstrators demanding justice for Floyd.
Newsweek reached out to France's presidential website for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Fatma Khaled is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. politics, world ... Read more
