Reuters. Protesters shot fireworks at police and set cars ablaze in the working class Paris suburb of Nanterre, hours after President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday (June 29) deplored the "inexcusable" fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop there.
The shooting of the teenager, who was of North African origin, has fuelled long-running complaints of police brutality in the ethnically diverse suburbs of France's biggest cities.
On Nanterre's Avenue Pablo Picasso, a trail of overturned vehicles burned as fireworks fizzed at police lines.
Police clashed with protesters in the northern city of Lille and Toulouse in the southwest. There was also unrest in Amiens, Dijon and the Essone administrative department south of the French capital. The incident, which has outraged locals and French stars including Kylian Mbappe and Omar Sy, led to clashes between angered protesters and police in the capital's suburbs overnight, resulting to 40 burnt vehicles and over 100 arrests.
Earlier, in rare criticism of law-enforcement a day after the shooting, Macron called the shooting "inexcusable".
There is "shock, mourning, anger" after a 17-year-old was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop near Paris, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Wednesday (June 28), while calling for calm after overnight clashes.
"The shocking images broadcast yesterday show an intervention that clearly does not seem to comply with the rules of engagement of our law enforcement officers," Borne said.
