French President Emmanuel Macron will convene his cabinet for a second crisis meeting in two days on Friday, after the most destructive night of rioting yet in protest at the fatal shooting of a teenager by police.
Hundreds of police were injured and hundreds of people arrested overnight, authorities said, as rioters clashed with officers in towns and cities across France, buildings and vehicles were torched, storefronts damaged and buses overturned.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who had deployed 40,000 officers on Thursday night in a bid to quell a third night of unrest, said on Twitter that police made 667 arrests.
Violence broke out in Marseille, Lyon, Pau, Toulouse and Lille as well as parts of Paris, including the working class suburb of Nanterre, where 17-year-old Nahel M. – who was of Algerian and Moroccan descent – was shot dead during a traffic stop on Tuesday.
Nationwide, 249 police officers were injured, authorities said.
Macron will meet with his cabinet at 1100 GMT in Paris, likely cutting short his attendance at a European Union summit in Brussels, his office said. The president has so far ruled out declaring a state of emergency.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called the violence “intolerable and inexcusable” and reaffirmed her support for police and firefighters who were “bravely carrying out their duties”.
Transport Minister Clement Beaune told RMC radio that public transport in the Paris region would be severely disrupted on Friday and did not rule out an early closure of the network. Twelve buses were set on fire and destroyed overnight in a depot in Aubervilliers, in northern Paris.
Videos on social media showed numerous fires lit across the country, also including a tram set alight in the eastern city of Lyon.
