Significant tensions and damage punctuated the night of Wednesday June 28 to Thursday June 29 in many municipalities in the Paris suburbs, with urban violence spreading to other cities in France such as Toulouse and Lyon, following the death in Nanterre de Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager killed by a police officer for refusing to comply.

Rather calm at the start of the evening, the situation then became tense in the capital of Hauts-de-Seine, already the scene of clashes between residents and the police overnight. More than a dozen cars and garbage cans were set on fire, and barriers were placed on the road, noted journalists from Le Monde. On the facade of a building, the walls were tagged with the words “Justice for Nahel” and “Police kill”.

Smell of burning, incessant explosion noises, powerful fireworks shots… At 2 a.m., small extremely mobile groups were still multiplying the clashes in the Pablo-Picasso district. Police forces have retreated and are no longer visible in a part of the city that has come under complete riot control. The firefighters also retreated, according to our reporter on site Luc Bronner.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced the mobilization for Wednesday evening of 2,000 police and gendarmes in Paris and its inner suburbs, 800 more than last night.

Incidents were also deplored in several towns in Hauts-de-Seine. In Clamart, a tram train was set on fire, according to a police source.

Ile-de-France under tension, fires in Toulouse, Dijon and Lyon

Twenty municipalities in Seine-Saint-Denis have recorded incidents, according to a police source, sometimes in usually quiet towns like Dugny. According to her, each time there were groups of less than a hundred very mobile people on site. The Prefecture of Police reported 35 arrests shortly before 2 a.m.

In Essonne, a group of people set fire to a bus around 9 p.m. after bringing the passengers down to Viry-Châtillon, we learned from a police source. Clashes also broke out shortly after 8 p.m. in the Mirail district of Toulouse, where several vehicles were set on fire, police and firefighters receiving projectiles, according to a police source.

In several districts of Dijon, the authorities reported burnt garbage containers and firework rockets. In Lyon and its agglomeration, as in Vénissieux, Bron and Villeurbanne, the police were targeted by fireworks mortars. A fire probably linked to pyrotechnic fire occurred in a building in Villeurbanne, causing four minor injuries, we learned from the firefighters. “Some apartments” were destroyed by fire and ten households, or 35 people, were relocated. Four people were also hospitalized, slightly intoxicated. In Vaulx-en-Velin, the police station was targeted, before the intervention of the police.

Elsewhere, tensions have been identified in Roubaix (North), Amiens and Nice, according to a police source. Some incidents, such as in Saint-Etienne, Lille and Rennes, took place on the sidelines of rallies in support of the Earth Uprisings, the recently dissolved environmental movement.

The Fresnes prison area attacked

The security post at the entrance to the Fresnes prison area (Val-de-Marne) was attacked overnight from Wednesday to Thursday with fireworks by rioters, Agence France-Presse learned ( AFP) from a police source.

Videos viewed by AFP show around twenty young hooded men attacking the guardhouse at the entrance to the estate with fireworks and various projectiles.

The area gives access to the residences of the guards, the remand center, the women’s remand center or even the prison hospital. An alarm sounded during the attack, as shown in several videos posted on social networks. “They did not enter the prison compound. Law enforcement was quickly called,” the law enforcement source said. The videos also show fires on the street leading to the prison.

Avoid the 2005 conflagration

The events that led to the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old resident of Nanterre, continued to generate a flood of political commentary all day Wednesday.

Calls for calm rang out from all sides, and the public authorities multiplied their speeches to avoid a conflagration. “The shocking images” posted on social networks show a police intervention “which clearly does not comply with the rules of engagement of our law enforcement forces,” said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

In the morning, Emmanuel Macron had mentioned an “inexplicable” and “inexcusable” act. At the request of the President of the Republic, the Minister Delegate for the City, Olivier Klein, spoke with the mother of the teenager to offer her the “condolences of the government” and assure her of the “support of the nation”. .

Nahel’s mother called in a video posted on TikTok for a white march Thursday at 2 p.m. in front of the Hauts-de-Seine prefecture, very close to the scene of the fatal shooting, expressing her “revolt for [son] son”.

The policeman suspected of the fatal shooting, aged 38, is questioned by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) as part of the investigation into intentional homicide opened by the Nanterre prosecution. His police custody was extended on Wednesday in “the perspective of an opening of judicial information envisaged” Thursday morning, said the prosecution.

The home of this police biker is under surveillance, according to the local authorities of his place of residence, following the dissemination of anonymous threats on social networks. “We will take the administrative decisions of suspension if ever charges are brought against him”, announced Mr. Darmanin.

The case has reignited controversy over the action of law enforcement in France, where a record number of thirteen deaths were recorded in 2022 in the context of refusal to comply during traffic checks.