PARIS: French police arrested at least 719 people on Saturday night during further rioting about police brutality, according to an initial Interior Ministry assessment on Sunday morning.
The ministry tweeted that 45 police officers were injured in the riots that began after a teenage driver was shot dead at close range by a policeman in a traffic check.
Thanks to the deployment of 45,000 police officers and thousands of firefighters, it was a “calmer night” than the previous day, the tweet said.
Paris, Marseille and Lyon were among the cities most affected, with riots, looting and damage to property.
Police in Paris cleared the city’s famous Champs Élysées boulevard using tear gas, Le Figaro newspaper reported.
There was also renewed looting in Lyon and Nice.
In Marseille, the situation was tense but under control, the city administration said in the evening. Groups formed throughout the evening to cause damage, the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône said.
The police tried to disperse people with tear gas.
There was a major increase in the police presence in cities nationwide, particularly in Marseille, Lyon and Grenoble.
In Marseille, police deployed armoured vehicles, helicopters and special troops.
Rioters also rammed a mayor’s house with a car and set it alight while his family were sleeping, according to Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, outside Paris.
He said the rioters rammed the house with a car and set fire to it, injuring his wife and one of his children.
The public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for attempted murder, according to the television station BFMTV.
The mayor was still at the town hall during the night, which was barricaded with barbed wire and guarded by police officers due to attempted attacks after days of riots.
However, the building where the mayor’s wife was sleeping with their two small children was not secured and the rioters rammed the gate to his house with a car and then set fire.
Earlier, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that Saturday night was quieter due to the “determined action” of law enforcement officers.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne thanked the police, gendarmes and firefighters deployed nationwide. “In the face of violence, they show exemplary courage,” she tweeted.
Riots have also been reported in French overseas territories,including French Guiana in South America and the Caribbean island of Martinique.
French President Emmanuel Macron cancelled his state visit to Germany planned for next week given the political unrest. — dpa
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
