Paris, July 1: Violence continued in France after a police officer shot dead a 17-year-old teenager four days ago in Nanterre, western Paris suburbs, with 667 arrests across the country, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced on Friday.
“Last night, our police officers, gendarmes and firefighters bravely faced once again rare violence,” the Minister said on Friday on social media, adding that the security forces, following his “firm instructions,” arrested 667 people across the country.
In the Ile-de-France region, the police said that 307 rioters were arrested overnight, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Minister also said that 249 police officers and gendarmes were injured overnight.
According to authorities, some 40,000 police forces were deployed on Thursday across the country to maintain order, including 5,000 in Paris.
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Although Valerie Pecresse, President of the Ile-de-France region, announced on Thursday that buses and tramways would not be running in the region from Thursday after 9 p.m. local time, rioters still burned 12 buses in a bus centre in Aubervilliers, suburbs of Paris.
According to the French newspaper Le Parisien, 3,880 fires were counted on Thursday evening on public roads. Some 1,919 vehicles were burnt as well as 492 buildings.
Visiting on Friday the police station in Evry-Courcouronnes, Ile-de-France region, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the government would not exclude the possibility of restoring a state of emergency.
On Tuesday, a French police officer opened fire and killed the 17-year-old teenager Nahel M (Nanterre) of Algerian Muslim descent, while the latter refused to comply to pull over his car.
The police officer who fired his gun later told investigators that he had acted for fear of the car causing a fatal accident.
Tuesday’s shooting triggered violent protests on Wednesday throughout France, which led to the police arresting nearly 150 people in major French cities. (IANS)
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