Shops, public buildings and parked cars have been torched and smashed, ITV News’ Europe Editor James Mates reports from Paris
Travel warnings have been issued to British tourists hoping to travel to France after widespread protests across the nation continue.
All bus and tram services in the country were ordered to stop from 9pm Friday, amid ongoing riots after a police officer fatally shot a 17-year-old boy.
France’s Interior Ministry said that by early on Saturday, there were 994 arrests made overnight across the country.
At least nine arrests were made in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, and authorities said those who were arrested had petrol jerry cans and Molotov cocktails.
Protesters have been clashing with police across the country. Credit: AP
Interior minister Gerald Darmanin ordered a nationwide night-time shutdown of all public buses and trams in response to the riots and added 5,000 police to the streets, increasing the number to 45,000 overall.
President Emmanuel Macron has appealed to parents to keep children off the streets and blamed social media for fueling violence.
Elsewhere, the British government has warned travellers there may be disruptions to road travel and local transport provision may be reduced.
It also said some local governments in France may impose curfews.
“You should monitor the media, avoid areas where riots are taking place, check the latest advice with operators when travelling and follow the advice of the authorities,” the government website advises.
A spokesperson for Eurostar told ITV News earlier on Friday evening: “Our services to France are currently running as scheduled and normal ticket conditions apply.
Charred cars and bus are pictured in Lyon, central France. Credit: AP
“We will continue to monitor the situation and will provide updates on Eurostar.com and Twitter if this changes.”
The teenager, identified by lawyers as Nael M, was killed by a gunshot and died at the scene on Tuesday in a Parisian suburb.
A police officer was detained on suspicion of manslaughter, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
The boy’s funeral is being held by friends and family on Saturday in Nael’s hometown.
Riots have taken place since June 27 and originally started in Nanterre, but the fiery clashes quickly spread as far afield as Brussels, Marseille, and Lyon.
Shops, public buildings and parked cars have been torched and smashed.
A person reacts while a police officer holds a baton during protests following the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager killed by a French police officer in Nanterre during a traffic stop, in Paris, France, July 2, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce
Rioting across France appeared to be less intense on Saturday, as tens of thousands of police had been deployed in cities across the country after the funeral of a teenager of North African descent, whose shooting by police sparked nationwide unrest.
President Emmanuel Macron postponed a state visit to Germany that was due to begin on Sunday to handle the worst crisis for his leadership since the “Yellow Vest” protests paralysed much of France in late 2018.
Some 45,000 police were on the streets with specialised elite units, armoured vehicles and helicopters brought in to reinforce its three largest cities, Paris, Lyon and Marseille.
At 0145 (2345 GMT) Sunday morning, the situation was calmer than the previous four nights, although there was some tension in central Paris and sporadic clashes in the Mediterranean cities of Marseille, Nice and the eastern city of Strasbourg.
The biggest flashpoint was in Marseille where police fired tear gas and fought street battles with youths around the city centre late into the night.
In Paris, police increased security at the city’s landmark Champs Elysees avenue after a call on social media to gather there. The street, usually packed with tourists, was lined with security forces carrying out spot checks. Shop facades were boarded up to prevent potential damage and pillaging.
The interior ministry said 1,311 people had been arrested on Friday night, compared with 875 the previous night, although it described the violence as “lower in intensity”. Police said almost 200 people had been arrested nationwide on Saturday.
Local authorities all over the country announced bans on demonstrations, ordered public transport to stop running in the evening and some imposed overnight curfews.
The unrest, a blow to France’s global image just a year from holding the Olympic Games, will add political pressure on Macron.
He had already faced months of anger and sometimes violent demonstrations across the country after pushing through a pension overhaul.
Postponement of the state visit to Germany is the second time this year he has had to cancel a high-level event because of the domestic situation in France. In March, he cancelled King Charles’s planned state visit.
FUNERAL OF TEENAGER
Nahel, a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan parents, was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
For the funeral, several hundred people lined up to enter Nanterre’s grand mosque. Volunteers in yellow vests stood guard, while a few dozen bystanders watched from across the street.
Some of the mourners, their arms crossed, said “God is Greatest” in Arabic, as they spanned the boulevard in prayer.
Marie, 60, said she had lived in Nanterre for 50 years and there had always been problems with the police.
French President Emmanuel Macron (right) met Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a three-day state visit last week. (Photo: POOL/AFP/NG Han Guan)
French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published Sunday that Europe must not be a “follower” of either the US or China on Taiwan, saying that the bloc risks entanglement in “crises that aren’t ours”.
His comments risk riling Washington and highlight divisions in the European Union over how to approach China, as the US steps up confrontation with its closest rival and Beijing draws closer to Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.
“The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must be followers and adapt ourselves to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron told media including French business daily Les Echos and Politico as he returned Friday from a three-day state visit to Beijing.
Citing his prized ideal of EU “strategic autonomy”, the French leader said that “we must be clear where our views overlap with the US, but whether it’s about Ukraine, relations to China or sanctions, we have a European strategy”.
“We don’t want to get into a bloc versus bloc logic,” he added, saying Europe “should not be caught up in a disordering of the world and crises that aren’t ours”.
China views democratic, self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to take it one day, by force if necessary.
Angered by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting last week with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Beijing launched massive military exercises around the island immediately after Macron departed for France, including simulated strikes on its territory.
“AMBIGUITY”
Macron discussed Taiwan with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday, during a visit in which he was feted but more hawkish EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was kept mostly at arm’s length.
His Elysee Palace office said the talks had been “dense and frank” and that the French president was concerned about “growing tensions in the region” that could lead to “a terrible accident”.
Macron was “simply talking about the risk of Chinese ‘overreaction’, forgetting China wishes to change the status quo by taking over Taiwan one way or the other”, Antoine Bondaz of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS) commented on Twitter.
“Why this desire never to recall we have an interest in maintaining stability?” he added, warning that “this ambiguity … instils doubt in our like-minded partners”.
Taiwan island was just one area that risked “an acceleration of tensions breaking out between the duopoly” of China and the US, Macron said.
