Since the tragic death of a 17-year-old boy named Nehel in Nanterre, the French have been in revolt in several cities. Damage to public buildings and other fighting broke out overnight Thursday into Friday in dozens of cities across the country. The situation is likely to improve again this evening.
Update on the situation:
9:22 pm: According to regional newspaper Le Dauphiné, shops in the city of Grenoble have been hit by robberies. Dozens of youths were seen carrying items from sports shops amid firework mortars, tear gas and burning of trash cans and bicycles. A few cars were set on fire in the suburbs.
9:10 pm: Protests are disrupted by police in Paris.
Many French people defied provincial restrictions and gathered. Demonstrators demanding “Justice for Nehal” were chased away by the police. Citizens protest.
9:05 pm .: First it’s overflowing in Nantes
Garbage fires, construction machinery and vandalized windows to cries of “Justice for Nahel”.
9 pm: In Brussels, the police are also ready to intervene. Also, two tram stops were temporarily not provided on the orders of the police.
8:48 pm: According to BFMTV, 36 people were arrested in the city of Marseille. At the same time, two police officers were slightly injured by two small groups of youths.
8:45 pm: 1,300 people gather in Lyon
Demonstrators and law enforcement clashed Friday evening in front of city hall in Lyon, at the start of a rally against police violence banned by the Rhône province.
Despite the ban, crowds flocked to the city center around 8:00 p.m., reaching 1,300 people, according to the province. Police responded with tear gas to firecrackers set off by masked demonstrators, AFP reported at the scene.
8:40 PM: 917 people were arrested in France this Thursday evening, TF1’s 8pm guest Gérald Dormanin announced. The average age of those arrested is 17, he said.
8:34 PM: Gerald Dorman on a possible state of emergency in the region: “We do not rule out any hypothesis”
Home Secretary Gerald Dormanin said the government had “not ruled out any hypothesis” about the possibility of a state of emergency. “In 50 years, we have used the state of emergency four times. President Chirac used it after 10 days of emergency. We did not rule out either hypothesis. We will see after next night what the President will decide.”He said, on TF1’s JT’s 20H set.
8:30 PM: The interior minister announced that a total of 45,000 police and gendarmes would be mobilized overnight from Friday to Saturday to stem the violence that has rocked France since the death on Tuesday of Nahel, who was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop.
Gérald Darmanin said at TF1 that “more specialized units” would be mobilized, such as the RAID, the Research and Intervention Force (BRI) or the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN).
8:15 PM: Demonstrations are taking place across France this Friday evening in defiance of the ban.
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