On Saturday, July 1, 2023, The French interior ministry announced 1311 arrests around France as rioting raged in cities around the country for a fourth night on Friday, June 30, 2023.
Early Saturday, firefighters in Nanterre extinguished fires set by protesters that left scorched remains of cars strewn across the streets. In the neighboring suburb of Colombes, protesters overturned garbage bins and used them for makeshift barricades.
About 45,000 police officers, backed by light armoured vehicles were deployed on Friday, yet despite a huge police deployment, looting and rioting took place in some cities.
Looters broke into a gun shop and made off with weapons in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, police said. Officers in Marseille arrested nearly 90 people as groups of protesters lit cars on fire and broke store windows to take what was inside.
Buildings and businesses were also vandalized in the eastern city of Lyon, where a third of the roughly 30 arrests made were for theft, police said. Authorities reported fires in the streets after an unauthorized protest drew more than 1,000 people earlier Friday evening.
Despite an appeal to parents by President Emmanuel Macron to keep their children at home, street clashes between young protesters and police raged on. About 2,500 fires were set and stores were ransacked, according to authorities.
It was reported that in Friday’s night violence, 500 buildings were targeted, 2,000 vehicles burned and dozens of stores pillaged.
While the number of overnight arrests was the highest yet, there were fewer fires, cars burned and police stations attacked around France than the previous night, the Interior Ministry disclosed. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin claimed that the violence was of “much less intensity.”
Hundreds of police and firefighters have been injured, including 79 overnight, but authorities have not released injury tallies for protesters.
France’s National Football Team Calls For An End To Riots
With a statement posted on social media by captain Kylian Mbappe, France’s national football team, Les Bleus has joined in the pleas for an end to the violence.
“Many of us are from working class neighbourhoods and we share the feelings of pain and sadness. But the sadness is compounded by having to helplessly witness this process of self-destruction.”
Les Bleus
The players noted that they “understand what’s at the core of the anger.”
“Violence does not solve anything, even less so when it inevitably turns against those who express it… You are destroying your own properties, your neighbourhoods, your cities.”
Les Bleus
“The time of violence must give way to that of mourning, dialogue and reconstruction,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, Nahel’s funeral is due to take place in his hometown of Nanterre later on Saturday.
The funeral will be entirely private, and lawyers for Nahel’s mother have asked the media to stay away, saying it was “a day of reflection” for Nahel’s relatives.
The police officer accused of killing the teenager was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide. Preliminary charges mean investigating magistrates strongly suspect wrongdoing, but need to investigate more before sending a case to trial.
Nanterre Prosecutor, Pascal Prache stated that his initial investigation led him to conclude that the officer’s use of his weapon was not legally justified.
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