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France was roiled by riots for a fourth night Friday after police killed a 17-year-old as the country’s leader, Emmanuel Macron, blasted the protesters.
Mobs of people went on an evening rampage through the streets of a Paris suburb, where the teen, identified as Nahel M, was fatally shot by cops during a traffic stop Tuesday.
The crowds expressed their fury over Nahel’s death by smashing windows and setting cars and buildings ablaze. They also violently clashed with cops in riot gear as more than 1,300 demonstrators were arrested and detained overnight all across France.
France’s Interior Ministry said 2,560 fires were reported on public roads, 1,350 cars were burned, and there were 234 incidents involving damaged or charred buildings.
In addition, police were attacked 58 times by militants and 79 officers suffered injuries. A total of 45,000 cops were dispatched Friday to quell the chaos in the Paris suburb and other towns and cities like Marseille.
President Macron condemned the combatants, accusing them of justifying their anarchy by “unacceptable exploitation of the adolescent’s death.”
But the boy’s mother, Mounia, sees it differently, blaming the police for killing her son and taking part in the protests while screaming, “Justice for Nahel.”