Violence protests rocked the Paris suburb of Nanterre for the second night as protesters shot fireworks at police and set cars ablaze over the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop. So far, at least 150 people have been arrested. Rights groups have accused law enforcement agencies in France of being infested with systemic racism, an allegation that Macron has previously denied.


A video on social media, verified by Reuters, showed two police officers beside the car, a Mercedes AMG, with one shooting at the driver at close range as the car pulled away. The teenager died shortly afterward from his wounds, the local prosecutor said.


Here are the top 5 updates.



  • President Emmanuel Macron chaired a crisis meeting in view of the violent protests of the police killing of a teenager and dubbed the protests rocking Paris for two nights 'unjustifiable'.

  • Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said at least 150 people were arrested in a “a night of unbearable violence against the symbols of the republic: town halls, schools, police stations burned or attacked.”

  • Around 2,000 riot police have been called up in suburbs around Paris as protesters launched attacked the police with fireworks, torched cars and public buildings in towns in the suburbs around Paris, and in the city of Toulouse. Sporadic violence was also reported in Amiens, Dijon and St Etienne, and outside Lyon.

  • The protest was sparked by the killing of North-African origin teenager Nahel M, who was shot at point-blank range after he refused a traffic stop and drove away. 

  • A police officer is being probed for voluntary homicide for shooting the youth while prosecutors say he failed to comply with an order to stop his car, Reuters reported.


A minute’s silence was observed in the French National Assembly, where Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne remarked that the shooting “seems clearly not to comply with the rules.” The family has lodged a legal complaint against the officers for homicide, complicity in homicide, and false testimony, the family’s lawyer said, as per Reuters.