France deploys 40,000 officers amid clashes over teen police death

(Update 1: Changes headline, lede, adds detail throughout)

Paris, Jun 29 (EFE).- The French government will deploy 40,000 officers on Thursday to contain unrest that broke out following the police killing of a 17-year-old boy in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin called for calm after a second night of violence in France linked to the death of Nahel M, who was driving a rental car in Nanterre without a permit on Tuesday morning when he was shot dead during a traffic stop.

At least 150 people were arrested on Wednesday night, when 90 public buildings (including town halls, schools, police stations and courts) were attacked by rioters.

Some 170 police officers were injured during the latest clashes, Darmanin added.

“We are going to do everything possible so that order can be restored everywhere,” Darmanin told reporters.

The minister blasted the “unacceptable attacks on public spaces” and added that the riots had “nothing to do with what happened in Nanterre.”

The Interior Minister said he expected all political leaders to appeal for calm and warned that “there can be no conditions”, in a message addressed to left-wing opposition leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has slammed the authorities’ handling of the crisis.

“Shameful political recovery of Darmanin who discards his responsibilities in the drift of the police by accusing the protestors. Shabby, incompetent, irresponsible politician,” Mélenchon wrote on Twitter.

Justice minister Éric Dupond-Morett stressed that a judicial investigation into the killing was underway and that “all this has to stop,” while Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said “Nothing justifies the violence that occurred last night.”

Following the first night of rioting, French President Emmanuel Macron and several members of his cabinet appealed for calm and expressed solidarity with Nahel’s family, calling his death “inexplicable and inexcusable.”

But Macron criticized rioters following Wednesday night’s violence, calling the unrest “unjustifiable”.

A tribute march called for by the teenager’s family was being held in Nanterre on Thursday afternoon.

Footage of Tuesday’s incident that has been circulating on social media shows Nahel M’s car being stopped by a pair of officers, one of whom can be seen pointing his gun at the teenage driver through the window while the other officer speaks to him.

A shot can be heard as the car starts to accelerate before crashing to a halt.

The police officer who fired the shot has been arrested and charged with voluntary homicide.EFE

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