40,000 police officers will be mobilised across France tonight in an attempt to quell riots triggered by the killing of a 17-year-old teenager by a police officer.
The French Interior Ministry announced the mobilisation this afternoon.
5,000 officers will be sent to Paris.
It comes after a second night of violent protests with protesters setting fire to cars and public buildings over the fatal police shooting of a teenager during a traffic stop.
According to The Independent:
Police arrested 150 people overnight, with French president Emmanuel Macron condemning the violence as “unjustifiable”.
The epicentre of the unrest was in Nanterre, a working-class town in the western outskirts of Paris. The killing, caught on video, shocked the country and stirred up long-simmering tensions between locals and officials in disadvantaged neighbourhoods around France.
Clashes first erupted on Tuesday night in and around Nanterre, following which the government deployed 2,000 police to maintain law and order.
“The last few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations but also schools and town halls, and thus institutions of the Republic and these scenes are wholly unjustifiable,” Mr Macron said.
In Nanterre, where Nahel was shot, a march organised by the teenager’s mother is taking place in his memory.
The police officer who shot the teenager has been placed under formal investigation for voluntary homicide.
