Protesters set ablaze garbage bins and vehicles as they clashed with riot police in some Paris suburbs overnight after a 17-year-old was shot dead by police during a traffic stop on Tuesday (June 27) and prosecutors opened a homicide investigation, Reuters reports.
Thirty-one people were arrested in the clashes in which 40 cars were burned, mostly in Nanterre, the Paris suburb where the victim was from, interior minister Gerald Darmanin said on Wednesday (June 28).
Burnt cars, some still spewing smoke and small flames, lined up roads in Nanterre on Wednesday morning in the aftermath of the protests.
Prosecutors on Tuesday said the shooting took place after the youth failed to comply with an order to stop his car. The officer fired at the boy, who subsequently died from his wounds, it said.
A video shared on social media, verified by Reuters, shows two police officers beside the car, a Mercedes AMG, with one shooting as the driver pulled away.
Darmanin called for calm on BFMTV on Wednesday morning and said "justice must be done and the truth must be told." Some 2,000 police have been mobilised in the region, he said.
He added that the police officer would be suspended from his function if the charges against him are upheld.
Paris Saint-Germain footballer Kylian Mpabbe tweeted heartbreak emojis and wrote: "I'm hurting for my France. An unacceptable situation."
French actor Omar Sy expressed his support for the family of the victim on Twitter and called for "justice to honour the memory of this child."
There have been two fatal shootings during traffic stops in France so far in 2023.
