French rioting slows six days after teenager’s death in Paris suburbs

Unrest across France sparked by the police shooting of a 17-year-old appeared to slow overnight after six nights.

In all, according to the Interior Ministry, there were 157 arrests, down from a peak of 3,880 last Friday night, and two police stations were attacked, among other damage.

Around 45,000 officers were deployed nationwide to counter violence fuelled by anger over discrimination against people who trace their roots to former French colonies and live in low-income neighbourhoods.

A graffiti reading ‘Police scum from Saint-Soline to Nanterre – do not forget or forgive’ on a Holocaust memorial in Nanterre. PA Media

Nahel, the teenager killed last Tuesday, was of Algerian descent and was shot in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

Across France, 297 vehicles were torched overnight, along with 34 buildings.

A burning car struck the home of the mayor of the Paris suburb L’Hay-les-Roses over the weekend, an unusually personal attack amid the backdrop of fires and vandalism targeting police stations and town halls.

French President Emmanuel Macron has blamed social media for the spread of the unrest and called on parents to take responsibility for their teenagers.

Justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told France Inter radio that parents who abdicate that responsibility “either through disinterest or deliberately” will be prosecuted.

A man walks past a burned van in the aftermath of protests in Colombes, outside Paris. PA Media

Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun said his wife and one of his children were injured and criticised the government for doing too little, too late – and said blaming social media or parents is papering over a bigger problem.

“The base ingredients are still there. For several years now, all summer long, explosives go off that keep people from sleeping, that make them crazy,” he told BFM television on Monday.

“We are powerless summer after summer.”