Force of 45,000 Police Deployed as Violence Engulfs France, Rioters Chase Mayor's Family from Home
France has mobilized a force of 45,000 police officers amid nationwide riots that have engulfed the nation since last week.
The rioters are largely from North African immigrant communities, according to a report published by Politico.
However, the article noted, “there are convincing reports of the involvement of the ultra-left, mostly white, Black Bloc movement which has tried to establish links with suburban youth in recent years.”
Police made 719 arrests on Saturday, and 1,311 the night before, according to the U.K. Telegraph.
The announcement of a national police deployment was made on Friday night by interior minister Gerald Darmanin, according to the German public radio and television channel Deutsche Welle.
The riots follow the death of an Algerian 17-year-old during a police traffic stop on Tuesday, according to The New York Times.
Rioters have been seen deploying incendiary devices such as Molotov cocktails in the chaos.
#Nanterre / Interpellation de 9 individus à Nanterre, porteurs de jerrican d’essence et de cocktails Molotov.
➡️maintenir et rétablir l’ordre républicain
↪️lutter contre les infractions et les troubles. pic.twitter.com/S5APV79GIx— Préfecture de Police (@prefpolice) July 1, 2023
Sixth night of riots in France:
352 fires on public roads
297 burned vehicles
34 burned buildings
45,000 police and gendarmes deployed
3 police officers and gendarmes injured
1 fireman died
157 people arrested pic.twitter.com/MGPNkF1QIM
— Steve Laws (@Steve_Laws_) July 3, 2023
The home of the mayor of a Paris suburb was targeted in an arson attack, according to the Telegraph.
L’Haÿ-les-Roses Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun described the attack — in which rioters rammed a vehicle into his home — as an “assassination attempt,” according to the Telegraph.
Jeanbrun’s wife suffered a serious leg fracture while ensuring that the couple’s children were placed over a wall away from the threat, the newspaper reported.
Darmanin later said that the authorities had opened an attempted murder investigation regarding the attack, according to the Telegraph.
“An investigation for attempted murder has been opened and significant resources of the judicial police are mobilized,” he said.
“The perpetrators of these facts will answer for their heinous acts.”
#FranceRiots: The Croix-Blanche shopping center in the Paris banlieue (suburb) of Mée-sur-Seine was completely destroyed in the race riots. pic.twitter.com/kQ8VPTqXfc
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) July 2, 2023
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, the grandmother of the youth who was killed by police, identified as Nahel Merzouk, has appealed for the rioting to stop.
The woman, identified as only as “Nadia”, said the boy’s death was being used an excuse by the rioters.
“I’m telling them to stop,” she told the French news channel BFM TV, according to Reuters.
“Nahel is dead. My daughter is lost … she doesn’t have a life anymore.”
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