France hit by third night of riots over police killing teen

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President Emmanuel Macron will be holding crisis talks on Friday following a third night of unrest.

Macron has been attending the European Union leaders summit in Brussels but will be cutting the trip short to chair the emergency meeting at 1:00 p.m. (1100 UTC/GMT)

Violence erupted for the third night in a row over the shooting of a teen by police at a traffic stop earlier in the week.

More than 420 people have been arrested, according to French media reports citing information from Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

Forty thousand police officials have been deployed to deal with outbreaks of violence.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin's office says, as of around 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Friday, at least 421 people have been arrested across the country over the course of the night.

According to Le Figaro newspaper, more than half of those arrests took place in the Paris region.

The paper said that the majority of those arrested were aged between 14 and 18 years old.

"There aren't any very violent confrontations in direct contact with the police, but there are a number of vandalized stores, looted or even burned businesses," a senior police officer told AFP. 

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin says police have already arrested more than 100 people as the riots enter their third night.

He also praised the work of the emergency services

"Support for our police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters who are doing a brave job," said Darmanin.

The mother of the teenager who was killed says she thought the death was racially motivated, but added that she held no grudge against the wider police force. 

"I don't blame the police, I blame one person: the one who took the life of my son," Mounia, described as a worker in the medical sector, said in her first media interview since the Tuesday morning shooting.

"I have friends who are officers. They are completely behind me... they don't agree with what happened," she said.

She said the officer who killed her son — who was at the wheel of a powerful Mercedes without a license — had other options than firing his gun.

"He didn't need to kill my son. A bullet? So close to his chest? No, no," the single mother said.

The officer "saw an Arab face, a little kid, and wanted to take his life," she said. "How long is this going to go on for? How many other children are going to go like this? How many mothers will find themselves like me?" she added.

The policeman who killed a French teenager in a Paris suburb on Tuesday, sparking violent protests across the country, has apologized to the family while in custody, his lawyer said.

"The first words he pronounced were to say sorry and the last words he said were to say sorry to the family," Laurent-Franck Lienard told French broadcaster BFMTV.

"He is devastated, he doesn't get up in the morning to kill people," Lienard said. "He didn't want to kill him."

Lienard said he would on Friday appeal against his client — who has been charged with voluntary homicide — being placed in custody.

Unrest in France has continued with police and youths clashing in the southern French port city of Marseille.

Hundreds of young people were seen roaming the streets and setting trash cans on fire in the city, including some at the regional administrative office.

Police say they dispersed a crowd of roughly 400 people and made several arrests. One officer was reported injured in the melee.

The unrest has now spread beyond France's borders to neighboring Belgium.

Brussels police on Thursday evening arrested roughly a dozen individuals who clashed with authorities. Police say at least one car was set on fire and that several smaller fires had been extinguished.   

Police around France are bracing for a potential third night of unrest. 

An additional 40,000 officers were made available for overnight duty, four times the numbers on hand on Wednesday. 

There were reports of clashes in Nanterre, the Parisien district where the 17-year-old was killed, following a march in his honor in which around 6,000 people had participated.

French news agency AFP also cited a police source as saying that further violence was expected in the "coming nights," with "actions tageted at the forces of order and the symbols of the state." The police source was discussing an internal memo, and French newspaper Le Monde appeared to quote a police source relaying information from the same paper.

Le Monde reported that authorities expected a "generalization" of the unrest, which at first had been confined to Nanterre but which already showed signs of spreading nationwide last night. 

However, just before 9 p.m. local time, reports from most major French cities remained calm, despite the heightened police presence and underlying tension.

The town of Clamart, southwest of Paris, has announced an overnight curfew in response to rioting.

The measure is to be in place from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., starting Thursday and ending on Monday morning.

The town of 54,000 inhabitants cited "the risk of new public order disturbances" for the decision.

"Clamart is a safe and calm town, we are determined that it stay that way," it said.

French prosecutors say they have handed a policeman a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide over the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Nahel in Nanterre. 

The killing led to two nights of riots in Paris and other cities across in France.

Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said his initial investigation led him to conclude "the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met."

The president of the region including the French capital Paris has announced that public bus and tram services will not run after 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) following two nights of riots.

Valerie Pecresse said that decision had been taken so that the public transport services could not become "targets for thugs and vandals."

Protests and riots following the shoot of a teenager in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday led to numerous instances of property damage.

Police in the Nanterre suburb of Paris began to fire tear gas on the march that had been planned to commemorate the teenager who was shot by police there on Tuesday.

French newspaper Le Monde reported that tear gas was fired as the march, which was attended by around 6,200 people, approached the scene of Tuesday's shooting.

Some protesters had thrown projectiles at the police outside Nanterre's main administrative building, French news agency AFP reported.

The tear gas resulted in the protesters dispersing.

A commemoration march is taking place for the teenager who was shot dead by police for allegedly attempting to flee a traffic stop in Nanterre.

DW correspondent Lucia Schulten is tracking developments from Nanterre — situated on the outskirts of Paris — which has been at the heart of unrest following the killing.

"The street has been blocked by marchers," Schulten said, adding that it was a highly charged and "loud situation."

Schulten said that it was "difficult" to predict what would happen, where the march was going, or whether it would descend into violence. But she pointed out that people were angry.

In terms of the French government response, Schulten said that authorities were "doubling down with more police" and that over the coming nights there will be 40,000 police officers deployed.

The French Interior Ministry said on Thursday that it is mobilizing 40,000 police officers to deal with riots that have spread across France.

The unrest follows the shooting of a teenager of North African descent in Paris on Tuesday.

"The state must be firm in its response, tonight 40,000 policemen will be mobilized, including 5,000 in the Paris region, versus 9,000 yesterday," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

The officers will also be deployed to towns and cities across France where riots spread on Wednesday night.

Cars and bins were torched in parts of Paris and across France overnight for the second night of unrest.

Media reports and images showed protesters launching fireworks at riot police, who fired projectiles to try to disperse the angry crowds.

A tram line in a Paris suburb was also reportedly set alight.

The French AFP news agency cited a police source as saying several cars were torched in the city of Toulouse, and responding police and firefighters were pelted with projectiles. Reports of similar scenes emerged also from Dijon and Lyon. 

The same source also said protesters attacked security officers with fireworks at the entrance of Fresnes, the second-largest prison complex in France.

"They did not enter the prison grounds. The police were quickly called in," the source said.

The mayor of Mons-en-Baroeul, outside the northern city of Lille, told AFP that some 50 hooded individuals stormed the town hall, which was later set on fire.