Nearly 1,000 people in France were arrested and 80 police injured during a fourth night of unrest triggered by the fatal police shooting of a teenager, but officials claimed the situation was calmer than on the previous night,
The Guardian reports.
Forty-five thousand police officers, including special forces, were deployed to respond to rioting across the country on Friday night, with the situation in two major cities – Marseille and Lyon – highlighted as particular chaotic, with buildings and vehicles torched and stores looted.
The ministry of the interior reported 994 were arrests made throughout France overnight, while 79 police and gendarmes were injured and 2,560 fires on public roads recorded. Despite this, the ministry said the protests were “of a lower intensity compared to the previous night”.
“It’s the republic that will win, not the rioters,” France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said as he met with police in the early hours of Saturday morning. He denounced the “unacceptable violence in Lyon and Marseille” where public demonstrations were banned and public transport halted.
More than 80 arrests were made in Marseille, according to the interior ministry, and “significant reinforcements” were sent after the mayor, Benoit Payan, called on the national government to immediately send additional troops.
“The scenes of pillaging and violence are unacceptable,” Payan tweeted late on Friday, after police clashed with protesters.
Local media reported that an Aldi was the target of a looting ram-raid, while authorities said they were investigating the cause of an apparent explosion in the city, which they did not believe caused any casualties.
Several rifles were looted from a gun store, but no ammunition was taken. One person was arrested with a rifle that was probably from the store, police said.
In Lyon and its surrounding suburbs, rioters set cars ablaze and aimed fireworks at police. Police deployed armoured personnel carriers and a helicopter to quell the unrest in France’s third-largest city.
Local media reported a quieter night in Paris, where “a massive deployment of law enforcement forces deterred the slightest hint of confrontation or disruption”, the Le Monde newspaper said.
