Public transport has been disrupted in Paris after angry protestors destroyed a dozen buses in the north of the capital in a night of violent riots over the killing of a teenager by police.
Buses and trams had already stopped working from 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) Thursday after a tram had been attacked in protest the night before but resumed in the morning. The metro has largely continued working without problem.
On Friday morning however, some 23 bus lines out of a total of 350 in the city were not working while two tram lines were completely closed and others offered partial service or had major delays, a state-owned public transport operator, RATP said.
Tension rose on Thursday during a solemn march led by the mother of 17-year-old Nahel killed by Paris police. The teenager's mother was leading the march on a truck, with hundreds of people following her through the suburb of Nanterre where her son was shot at a traffic stop.
Nahel, 17, was shot after he broke traffic laws and failed to stop, prosecutors said following the shooting on Tuesday.
While carrying ‘Justice for Noel’ slogans, protesters at the march chanted “we don’t forget, we don’t forgive,” as they denounced the fatal shooting on Thursday.
Race, power and identity
In her first media interview since the shooting, Nahel's mother, Mounia, told the France 5 channel: "I don't blame the police, I blame one person: the one who took the life of my son."
She said the 38-year-old officer responsible, who was detained and charged with voluntary manslaughter on Thursday, "saw an Arab face, a little kid, and wanted to take his life". Nahel’s family is of North African origin.
His death has rekindled conversations about race, power and identity in France. In 2005, two teenage boys running from the police were electrocuted after hiding in an electrical substation.
They were both of African descent and their deaths set off weeks of some of the worst riots in the country’s history, drawing attention to its racial fissures.
Ongoing unrest
The 1.5 kilometer march for Nahel ended with riot police firing tear gas at protesters. Several cars were set alight in Nanterre and other regions, with the heightened security in the city doing little to det er the Thursday night unrest.About 667 people were arrested.
In Marseille, a library was vandalised, according to local officials, and scuffles broke out nearby when police used tear gas to disperse a group of 100 to 150 people who allegedly tried to set up barricades.
Multiple public buildings were also targeted in Seine-Saint-Denis, in the Paris metro area, according to a police source.
In the suburb of Drancy, rioters used a truck to force open the entrance to a shopping centre, which was then partly looted and burned, a police source said.
Firefighters in the northern municipality of Roubaix, meanwhile, dashed from blaze to blaze throughout the night, with a hotel near the train station also catching fire, sending its dozen or so residents fleeing into the streets.
Belgian support
A number of people took to the streets of Belgium’s capital on Thursday to support the protests in France. They set vehicles on fire before police intervened and detained some of them.
According to local media, a group of young people issued a call on social media in support of the demonstrations in France over the death of Nahel.
Demonstrators gathered in the centrally located district of Anneessens and threw cobblestones, as well as smashed windows at bus stops.
Anneessens metro station was closed and vehicle entry to the area was prohibited. The police reportedly detained 10 demonstrators.
