Police arrested more than 700 young rioters overnight as France endured a fifth day of turmoil that saw a suburban mayor’s home targeted with a burning car.
The violent demonstrations appeared to be subsiding after the police killing of a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent on Tuesday sparked riots in the Paris suburb of Nanterre that then spread across France.
French police arrested 719 people nationwide by early Sunday, fewer than the 1,300 rioters detained on Friday night, with Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin signalling a “calmer” atmosphere than at the start of the weekend.
The mayor of L’Hay-les-Roses — a suburb of Paris — tweeted that his family were the victims of an “assassination attempt” as a car was rammed into his home overnight. He called it a “milestone” of “horror and ignominy.”
Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun was not at home at the time of the attack — he had been in his office, as on the previous nights, the BBC reported. But his wife suffered a broken leg and a child was also hurt in the attack. Police are still searching for the attackers.
Darmanin said an investigation for attempted murder has been opened in the case with “significant resources” mobilized. “The perpetrators will answer for their heinous acts,” he said in a tweet on Sunday.
Jeanbrun earlier urged the French government to impose a state of emergency in response to the riots, which President Emmanuel Macron has so far declined to do. Macron has called a meeting with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and other officials for later Sunday to discuss the crisis.
The police shooting of teenager Nahel M. reignited tensions between the youth of the banlieues — living in typically disadvantaged and multi-ethnic neighborhoods — and police accused of brutality and racial discrimination. Around 45,000 police officers had been deployed to control the rioting across the country, particularly in Marseille, Nice and Strasbourg, with 5,000 tasked with patrolling Paris.
Nahel was laid to rest in a Muslim ceremony on Saturday in Nanterre.
Macron on Saturday cancelled a visit to Germany that was due to start on Sunday in order to focus on the rioting in France. The escalating turmoil also forced Macron on Friday to depart early from a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.
