Protesters Clash With Police in France Over Fatal Shooting of Teen Driver

Nahel M., 17, was shot in the chest at point-blank range on Tuesday morning in an incident that has reignited debate in France about police tactics long criticised by rights groups over the treatment of people in low-income suburbs, particularly ethnic minorities.

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As night fell Wednesday, clashes spread from neighbourhoods around the capital to other French cities, including Toulouse, Dijon and Lyon.

Around 2,000 riot police were deployed to Paris and its surrounding suburbs, with police there reporting 77 arrests by 2:00 am (0000 GMT) Thursday.

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A thick column of smoke billowed above the area where AFP journalists saw more than a dozen cars and garbage cans set ablaze and barriers blocking off roads.

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One said his family had lived in France for three generations but “they are never going to accept us”.

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In the Essonne region south of the capital, a group set a bus on fire after forcing all the passengers off, police said, while in Clamart a tram was set on fire.

In the southern city of Toulouse, several cars were torched and responding police and firefighters pelted with projectiles, a police source said, while authorities reported similar scenes in Dijon and Lyon.

At France’s second-largest prison complex, Fresnes, protesters attacked security at the entrance with fireworks, a police source told AFP.

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“A teenager was killed. That is inexplicable and unforgivable,” President Emmanuel Macron said during an official visit to Marseille, southern France.

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The victim, identified as Nahel M. from Nanterre, was pulled over for breaking traffic rules while driving a yellow Mercedes on Tuesday morning.

Police initially reported that an officer had shot at the teenager because he was driving at him, but this was contradicted by a video circulating on social media and authenticated by AFP.

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France is haunted by the prospect of a repeat of 2005 riots sparked by the death of two black boys during a police chase. Those protests resulted in around 6,000 people arrested.

“There are all the ingredients for another explosion potentially,” one government advisor told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Last year, 13 people were killed after refusing to stop for police traffic checks, with a law change in 2017 that gave officers greater powers to use their weapons now under scrutiny.

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The 38-year old policeman filmed firing the lethal shot was taken into custody and is under investigation for voluntary manslaughter.

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