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RIOTS

France’s fifth night of rioting sees looting and attack on mayor’s home

More than 700 people were arrested as riots and looting continued across France for a fifth night, although many towns reported a calmer night than previously.

Published: 2 July 2023 08:40 CEST
France's fifth night of rioting sees looting and attack on mayor's home
French police officers fire tear has as demonstrators fill the street in the Champs Elysees area of Paris on July 1, 2023, five days after a 17-year-old man was killed by police in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris. Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP

Despite reports that the situation was calmer than previous nights in many places, there was still widespread disorder, with shops looted, buildings set alight and clashes with police.

The mayor of the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses reported that rioters rammed a car into his house before setting it on fire, injuring his wife and children. Police have opened an enquiry into attempted murder.

There was a very heavy police presence on Paris’ Champs-Elysées after reports that rioters planned to storm the famous avenue and loot the luxury shops.

Video footage from around 10.30pm shows police evacuating startled tourists from the famous avenue as shops boarded up their windows.

In the event, however, relatively small numbers turned up on or around the Champs-Elysées and were dispersed by police using tear gas. 

Cities including Marseille, Lille, Nice and Grenoble also saw clashes. In Marseille, police dispersed groups of youths earlier on Saturday evening at Canebière, the main avenue running through the centre of the city.

The scene of intense clashes on Friday and Saturday, Marseille authorities have halted all public transport from 6pm and banned protests until Sunday.

In Nice, a shop in the city centre was looted.

Smaller towns and cities across France also saw sporadic violence.

On Sunday morning, most local authorities were reporting a quieter night than previously, while interior minister Gérald Darmanin tweeted that it had been “a calmer night thanks to the resolute action of the security forces.” 

Across France, 45,000 officers were deployed to deal with the violence, which flared on Tuesday after the death of a 17-year-old boy at the hands of police.

The family of Nahel, shot during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, held a private funeral for him on Saturday.

The nights of rioting have drawn comparison with the clashes of 2005 – also sparked by the deaths of young men at the hands of police – and on Saturday, President Emmanuel Macron announced that he had cancelled a planned state visit to Germany in order to deal with the crisis. 

OPINION These riots could become France’s most dangerous crisis in decades

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POLICE

French police break up pro-Palestinian university protest

French police broke up a pro-Palestinian protest by dozens of university students in Paris, officials said on Thursday, as Israel's bombardment of Gaza sparks a wave of anger across college campuses in the United States.

Published: 25 April 2024 13:50 CEST
French police break up pro-Palestinian university protest

Police intervened as dozens of students gathered on a central Paris campus of the prestigious Sciences Po university on Wednesday evening, management said.

“After discussions with management, most of them agreed to leave the premises,” university officials said in a statement to AFP, saying the protest was adding to “tensions” at the university.

But “a small group of students” refused to leave and “it was decided that the police would evacuate the site,” the statement added.

Sciences Po said it regretted that “numerous attempts” to have the students leave the premises peacefully had led nowhere.

According to the police préfecture, students had set up around 10 tents.

When members of law enforcement arrived, “50 students left on their own, 70 were evacuated calmly from 0.20am” and the police “left at 1.30am, with no incidents to report,” the police said.

The protesters demanded that Sciences Po “cut its ties with universities and companies that are complicit in the genocide in Gaza” and “end the repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus,” according to witnesses.

The protest was organised by the Palestine Committee of Sciences Po.

In a statement on Thursday, the group said its activists had been “carried out of the school by more than fifty members of the security forces,” adding that “around a hundred” police officers were “also waiting for them outside”.

Sciences Po management “stubbornly refuses to engage in genuine dialogue,” the group said.

The organisers have called for “a clear condemnation of Israel’s actions by Sciences Po” and a commemorative event “in memory of the innocent people killed by Israel,” among other demands.

Separately, the Student Union of Sciences Po Paris said the decision by university officials to call in the police was “both shocking and deeply worrying” and reflected “an unprecedented authoritarian turn”.

Many top US universities have been rocked by protests in recent weeks, with some students furious over the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.

The war in Gaza began with an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7th that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,305 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

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