PARIS: Rioters in France rammed a car into the home of the mayor of a town south of Paris, injuring his wife and one of his children on the fifth night of chaos across France after police shot dead a 17-year-old boy trying to flee a traffic stop as grandmother of teenager Nahel M. appealed for calm on Sunday telling people to “stop and do not riot”.

The government of President Emmanuel Macron has been battling five consecutive nights of violent protests since 17-year-old Nahel M. was shot dead in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday by a police officer during a traffic check.

The killing of the teenager, who was of Algerian origin, has revived longstanding accusations of institutional racism within the French police who rights groups say single out minorities during controls.

The protests present a fresh crisis for Macron who had been hoping to press on with his second mandate after seeing off months of protests that erupted in January over raising the retirement age. He postponed a state visit to Germany scheduled to begin on Sunday, in a sign of the gravity of the situation in France. Macron will head a crisis meeting on Sunday with members of his government, according to the Elysee.

Grandmother of Nahel, the teenager whose death sparked unrest, pleads for calm as hundreds more arrested amid street clashes

The interior ministry has for the last two nights deployed 45,000 police and gendarmes nationwide, as well as helicopters and armoured vehicles.

The interior ministry said 719 people were arrested overnight, around half the figure from the previous night with intense clashes still reported in several places, including the southern city of Marseille.

Attention focused on the attack on the home of Vincent Jeanbrun, the right-wing mayor of L’Ha-les-Roses outside Paris which saw a burning car rammed by rioters into the entrance of his home with the aim of it setting fire to the building, prosecutors said.

The mayor’s wife and children, aged 5 and 7, were at home, although the mayor himself was at the town hall to deal with the riots. The wife was “badly injured” sustaining a broken leg, prosecutors said. Prosecutors have opened an attempted murder investigation.

“Last night the horror and disgrace reached a new level,” the mayor said in a statement. “The situation was much calmer” overall Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told reporters as she visited L’Hay-les-Roses.

“But an act of the kind we saw this morning here is particularly shocking. We will let no violence get by” unpunished, she said.

In Marseille, which has seen intense clashes and looting, police dispersed groups of youths at Canebiere, the main avenue running through the centre of the city, AFP journalists said.

China’s consulate in Marseille similarly warned its citizens to “be vigilant and exercise caution”. Culture and entertainment have been disrupted, with singer Mylene Farmer calling off stadium concerts and French fashion house Celine cancelling its Paris menswear show.

A 38-year-old policeman has been charged with voluntary homicide over Nahel’s death and has been remanded in custody.

Grandmother’s plea for calm

The grandmother of Nahel M. issued a plea on Sunday for calm telling people to “stop and do not riot”.

“I tell the people who are rioting this: Do not smash windows, attack schools or buses. Stop! It’s the mums who are taking the bus, it’s the mums who walk outside,” the grandmother, Nadia, told BFM television.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2023