Looting, throwing projectiles at police vehicles, tear gas: a few days after the death of young Nahel during a police check, Marseille experienced a very tense night between Friday and Saturday, the Minister of the Interior deciding to send reinforcements.
In total, the toll is heavy: 95 arrests, 31 injured on the side of the police, most of them light, very many trash fires, three burned vehicles and many shops looted, according to the police headquarters of Bouches- of the Rhone.
Groups of young people, often masked and “very mobile” robbed several signs in the center, but also in certain popular districts in the north of the city. A major fire, “linked to the riots”, according to a police source, also broke out in a supermarket.
A few hunting weapons were also stolen from an armory but without ammunition, according to the police headquarters.
After a previous night marked by clashes, calls for calm had however multiplied in Marseille. The police headquarters had banned the demonstration planned in memory of Nahel, 17, killed by the shooting of a police officer during a check earlier this week in Nanterre. Public transport was stopped in the early evening.
From the beginning of the evening, groups of young people gathered in the city center, in particular on the Canebière, a famous artery leading to the Old Port.
“Everybody hates the police,” they said as they approached law enforcement vans parked on an adjacent street.
Projectiles are fired at the vans and the police respond with a few tear gas shots. The groups disperse, run in small streets and the game of cat and mouse continues, AFP journalists have noted.
On one side of the street, a silent young man carried a cardboard sign: “in memory of Nahel”. “We are angry for what happened with Nahel”, explained two young girls who came without participating in the throwing of projectiles.
Several shops were looted, including that of the luxury brand Lancel, according to an AFP photographer. Young boys were seen running around with new clothes still on hangers and the sale tag visible.
In the early evening, on the Old Port, fishermen were sitting by the water’s edge and a couple shared a pizza looking out to sea.
Two young London tourists, Sam and Emily, 19, who preferred not to mention their surnames, said they were “shocked”. “We have just arrived, and there are police everywhere, tension, it’s weird,” they said while looking for a restaurant, most of which are closed in this neighborhood for fear of damage.
Tear gas shots and screams are then heard again. In a street, small piles are burning, rubbish, boxes, scooters. A vehicle of the Raid intervention forces zooms towards the Old Port.
In the air, the gendarmerie surveillance helicopter flies over the city, relayed by a police plane.
A little later in the night, the groups moved, some attempted an intrusion at the large Les Terrasses du Port shopping center and then further north in these working-class neighborhoods long neglected that President Emmanuel Macron visited at the start of the week. .
Near the city of Flamingos, a fire “linked to the riots”, affected an Aldi supermarket, according to a police source. “There is a “general conflagration” and the marine firefighters confirm to AFP that they have deployed significant resources to extinguish the flames.
“The scenes of looting and violence are unacceptable. I condemn these acts of vandalism with total firmness and call on the State to immediately send additional law enforcement forces,” left-wing mayor Benoît Payan tweeted. in the night.
A little later, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced “significant reinforcements”, a CRS company and an overflight helicopter.
Marseille Pride, which was scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed to an unspecified date.
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07/01/2023 09:23:36 – Marseille (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
