Riots sparked by the death of a teenager in Paris who was shot dead by police during a traffic stop has spread to cities in Switzerland and Belgium – but the streets of France are eerily quiet.
Five days of unrest across the country over the alleged execution of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who was of Algerian and Moroccan descent, has forced President Emmanuel Macron to hold crisis talks to assess the situation.
Clashes have broken out between police and protesters in the Swiss city of Lausanne in the early hours of Sunday, where Molotov cocktails were used, bricks thrown at police and shop windows smashed.
‘Echoing the events and riots raging in France, more than a hundred youths gathered in central Lausanne and damaged businesses,’ said a Lausanne police statement.
There have also been arrests in Brussels following similar disturbances, with rioters in Brussel chanting ‘Justice for Nahel’.
However, in stark contrast to the looting, fires and violence seen in France all week, a policeman in Paris suburb Nanterre – where Nahel was shot – told Parisian that this evening was ‘very calm’ as he compared it to an ordinary Sunday.
Macron held a government emergency meeting Sunday night, but it is unclear whether he will make public comments.
After the riots in Lausanne, seven people – aged 15-17 and one aged 24 – were arrested last night, according to Swiss newspaper reports.
The Nahel’s grandmother said today she wanted the nationwide rioting triggered by his killing to end.
She said the rioters were using Nahel’s death last Tuesday as an excuse to cause havoc and that the family wanted calm.
‘I’m telling them [the rioters] to stop,’ the grandmother, identified as Nadia by French media, told BFM TV.
‘Don’t break windows, buses … schools. We want to calm things down.
She added: ‘Nahel is dead. My daughter is lost … she doesn’t have a life anymore.’
Asked about a crowdfunding campaign that had received pledges of more than £575,000 (670,000€) for the police officer charged with voluntary homicide over the shooting, Nadia said: ‘My heart aches.’
She said she was angry at the officer who killed her grandson but not at the police in general and expressed faith in the justice system as France faces its worst social upheaval in years.
Another relative, who wants to stay anonymous, told the BBC: ‘We didn’t ask to break or steal. All of this is not for Nahel.’
The relative added that the teenagers family hopes for peaceful protests in the streets, where people could show their anger and demonstrate ‘without outbursts’.
They added that the French government must change the law which currently allows police officers to shoot during traffic stops and called for better training for police.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s office said Macron phoned Saturday to request a postponement of what would have been the first state visit by a French president to Germany in 23 years. Macron had been scheduled to fly to Germany on Sunday.
Some 45,000 extra police have been placed on the streets, but this did not stop further trouble in cities and towns from Paris to Marseille.
Nationwide arrests were somewhat lower than the night before, which Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin attributed to ‘the resolute action of security forces.’ Some 2,800 people have been detained overall since Merzouk’s death.
Mass police deployment has been welcomed by some frightened residents of targeted neighbourhoods and shop-owners whose stores have been ransacked – but it has further frustrated those who see police behaviour as the core of France’s current crisis.
The worst disorder overnight on Saturday to Sunday was in Marseille, where police fired tear gas and fought street battles with youths around the city centre late into the night.
Two policemen were set upon by a mob in Marseille, and ‘beaten to the ground like dogs,’ said French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
One was stabbed repeatedly, and the other suffered a fractured jaw, Mr Darmanin said.
The officer responsible for shooting Mr Merzouk – identified as Florian M., 38 – remains on remand having been charged with murder.
Disturbances in France have included raiders setting fire to a car and driving it into the home of a French mayor in an ‘attempt to kill his family’.
The attack in the early house of Sunday on Vincent Jeanbrun’s home in the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses came as 719 people were arrested in France.
Mr Jeanbrun said his wife and one of his children were injured in the ram-raid, which he believed was attempted murder.
Daily Mail
