Violence continued in France overnight from Thursday to Friday after a police officer shot dead a 17-year-old teen on Tuesday 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 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.
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.
Although Valerie Pecresse, president of the Ile-de-France region, announced on Thursday that buses and tramways would not be running in the region Thursday night after 9 p.m. local time, rioters still burned 12 buses in a bus center in Aubervilliers, suburbs of Paris.
According to the French newspaper Le Parisien, 3,880 fires were counted last night 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 teen 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 some 150 people in major French cities.
