Police on patrol during a protest in Nanterre, outside Paris in France on July 1. French President Emmanuel Macron urged parents to keep teenagers at home and proposed restrictions on social media to quell rioting spreading over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver. Photo / AP
Police on patrol during a protest in Nanterre, outside Paris in France on July 1. French President Emmanuel Macron urged parents to keep teenagers at home and proposed restrictions on social media to quell rioting spreading over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver. Photo / AP
France has dispatched its elite GIGN commandos to reinforce beleaguered police as the country braces for a fifth night of violence over the killing of Nahel Merzouk.
Some 45,000 police officers and Gendarmes were mobilised on Saturday evening after hundreds of people gathered to bury the 17-year-old police shooting victim in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Grégory Doucet, the mayor of Lyon, where dozens of police officers were injured on Friday night – including several by gunfire – called for urgent reinforcements, saying police in the city were “overwhelmed”.
Douce said following a crisis meeting that Lyon “has been in the grip of riots of unprecedented intensity, damage and violence”.
A damaged store in Montigny-le-Bretonneux, west of Paris is seen following fourth night of rioting. Photo / Getty Images
The GIGN – France’s top hostage rescue unit, similar to the SAS – arrived in Marseille on Saturday evening, according to police in Bouches-du-Rhône, following a night of fierce clashes between police and protesters.
“The results of the night can be summed up in one word: apocalyptic,” Rudy Manna, of the Bouches-du-Rhône police union, said of Friday night.
“We had scenes of guerrillas in the centre of Marseille, the northern districts were also affected by looting, burning of vehicles and trash cans.”
Gerald Darmanin, the French interior minister, said “a lot of resources” were being sent to the two embattled cities, which have been home to some of the worst clashes since the unrest broke out on Tuesday.
As well as the elite counter-terror unit, armoured vehicles and helicopters were being sent to shore up security in Marseille.
Despite the violence, curfews have not been introduced in either of the two cities.
French police on Saturday said their officers were being “ambushed” by rioters.
More than 200 policemen have been injured and over 700 businesses ransacked or burnt down since the police shooting of Merzouk sparked nationwide unrest on Tuesday.
Police made 1311 arrests overnight from Friday to Saturday – the most so far – but claimed the violence had been “lower in intensity” and with fewer cars and buildings set ablaze compared with previous nights.
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire on a burnt bus in Nanterre, outside Paris on July 1 following rioting over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver. Photo / AP
Meanwhile, hundreds of mourners gathered in Nanterres for Merzouk’s funeral on Saturday afternoon.
The funeral passed off peacefully, although correspondents described a tense atmosphere and mourners described anger at what they said was endemic police racism.
Merzouk, who was of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was driving a yellow Mercedes through Nanterres at around 8am on Tuesday when he was shot. There were two other people in the vehicle at the time.
Police initially claimed the officer opened fire because the vehicle was driving towards them as if to hit them.
But a social media video of the incident, which news agencies have confirmed, shows an officer pointing a gun through the stationary car window before opening fire as it drove away.
Prosecutors investigating the case said on Friday that two motorcycle officers involved told investigators that they tried to stop the car when they spotted it driving in a bus lane about 8am on Tuesday.
The driver ignored an initial request to stop and drove away through a red light, according to their account. They gave chase, pulled the car over, and pointed guns at the driver to “deter him from driving away again”.
A burnt car in Nanterre, outside Paris on July 1. The riots are France's worst since 2018. Photo / AP
Protesters say his killing is typical of a heavy-handed and racist approach to policing in France’s deprived racially mixed neighbourhoods.
The riots are France’s worst since the 2018 Yellow Vest protests brought the country to a standstill.
French television reported that at least four officers were wounded by shotgun fire in Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb of Lyon, on Friday night.
The main public library in Marseille, France’s second-largest city, was burnt down on Thursday. Overnight looting on Friday continued into Saturday morning, sparking appeals from shopkeepers for Macron to “do something”.
The city’s mayor asked residents not to put out rubbish or other bulk items because of the risk they would be set on fire by rioters.
CRS 8, an elite riot squad, was deployed to Lyon after the city’s mayor, as reported above, issued a public appeal for reinforcements.
The unit, formed in 2021 as a rapid response force to tackle urban violence, consists of around 60 specialist officers trained to deploy from their base outside Paris within 15 minutes of the order being given.
It has previously been involved in a controversial operation to evict undocumented migrants from the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte.
Twelve people were arrested overnight Friday to Saturday in Lyon, where rioters have fired mass barrages of fireworks rockets and hurled tiles from rooftops at police.
Explosions were heard on the streets overnight on Saturday and looters hit businesses ranging from motorcycle dealers to luxury boutiques.
