The French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, today confirmed 270 arrests in the riots that occurred in the early hours of the night between Friday and Saturday, a good part of them in Marseille (south), where reinforcements were sent.
“At this time already 270 arrests, of which more than 80 in Marseille, where important reinforcements are arriving at this moment,” Darmanin said in a message posted on Twitter at 12:31 am local time.
This statement came shortly after the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, denounced unacceptable “scenes of looting and violence” on the networks and demanded support.
The local media also reported serious incidents in other cities, such as Toulouse, Lyon or Nanterre.
This last town on the outskirts of Paris is the place where the death of the young Nahel took place, at the hands of a policeman last Tuesday, which has unleashed this wave of violent incidents.
For tonight, which is the fourth consecutive riot in France, the Government has put 45,000 police officers on the streets with a reinforced device that includes the deployment of light armored vehicles from the Gendarmerie.
The previous night the balance of arrests rose to 875 and there were almost 300 police officers injured, although none seriously.
Nahel, a 17-year-old young man of Arab descent, was fatally shot by a policeman on the 27th when he tried to flee from a police checkpoint in Nanterre.
The images of the incident, recorded by witnesses, sparked strong indignation in the country, which degenerated into riots, especially in the popular neighborhoods of large cities and in the metropolitan area of Paris.
Keep reading:
• “I feel bad for my France”: Kylian Mbappé and Jules Koundé speak out after the murder of a 17-year-old boy at the hands of a police officer on the outskirts of Paris
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