Paris
CNN
—
French authorities arrested about 150 people overnight as protests broke out for a second night over the fatal police shooting of a teenager, officials said Thursday.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tweeted that “town halls, schools and police stations were set on fire or attacked” during a night of “intolerable violence.”
Anger is rising in France over the death of the 17-year-old, identified as Naël, who was shot by police during a traffic stop Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
The incident triggered violent protests in several Paris suburbs on Tuesday night, during which 24 police officers were injured and 40 cars set alight, French authorities said.
In anticipation of violence stretching into a second evening, 2,000 extra police officers were mobilized Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
Darmanin expressed support for police and firefighters, saying: “shame on those who did not call for calm.”
The officer who allegedly shot the teenager was taken into custody Tuesday and will undergo questioning by prosecutors, Nanterre prosecutor’s office told CNN.
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron chaired a meeting of the interministerial crisis unit over the incident and subsequent protests, according to the Interior Ministry.
“We have seen scenes of violences against the police stations but also schools, city halls, therefore against institutions and against the republic,” Macron told reporters before the meeting. “These actions are completely unjustifiable.”
Macron earlier also said the fatal shooting of the youth was “unjustifiable.”
French government spokesperson Olivier Véran condemned the violence against institutions Thursday, telling CNN affiliate BFMTV that protesters were “not doing justice to Naël.”
“This morning, some children won’t be able to go to school because a school has been burned down and some families won’t be able to go to their town hall to get help or documents,” Véran said. “It is not the republic that killed this young man.”
Some attacks on government buildings overnight were carried out “in an organized, almost coordinated way,” Véran claimed.
“There’s a need for a collective outlet, and I’d prefer this outlet to take the form of a solemn, tribute march … rather than an explosion of violence … driven by people whose motives are sometimes different from that of rendering justice to a young man,” Véran said.
The spokesman confirmed a march has been called for Thursday afternoon by Naël’s mother.
Prosecutors said Wednesday the teen was in the car, a Mercedes AMG, with two others at the time of the incident.
The death of the 17-year-old was pronounced Tuesday morning “following at least one gunshot wound” and despite the intervention of emergency medics, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office said earlier.
A passenger in the vehicle was taken into custody and later released, while another passenger, who is believed to have fled the scene, is missing, the statement said.
An autopsy and additional examinations, including a toxicology report, have been ordered by the prosecutor’s office.
The incident is also being investigated by national police, Interior Minister Darmanin said earlier on Twitter.
