2023-06-29 06:40:20
Police and firefighters intervene in the Pablo-Picasso city, in Nanterre, on the night of June 28 to 29, 2023. MICHAËL ZUMSTEIN / VU ‘FOR “THE WORLD”
The smell of cars burning all over town. The sound of explosions, sometimes deafening. The incessant firing of fireworks against the police. Some squares littered with tear gas canisters. Dozens of fires. Firefighters forced to flee under the throwing stones. And the cries of anger from the assailants, which became cries of victory each time the police backed down, sirens blaring, under the pressure of the assaults or to avoid more direct and even more dangerous confrontations. The city of Nanterre experienced a second night of urban riots after the death of Nahel, killed on Tuesday June 27 by a police officer during a roadside check.
Even more serious, as police authorities and elected officials feared, incidents and violence have multiplied in a large number of neighborhoods in Ile-de-France, in the suburbs of Lyon, in Toulouse, in the North, recalling the specter the riots of autumn 2005, which had forced the government of Dominique de Villepin to declare a state of emergency to restore order. Thursday morning, on Twitter, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin indicated that the police had carried out 150 arrests during the night.
Follow our live: Death of Nahel in Nanterre: night of riots and destruction in the major cities of France
In Nanterre, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, very mobile groups, visibly well coordinated, extremely determined, sometimes accompanied by young people on two-wheelers to serve as lookouts, multiplied the fires of cars, vans, trucks, trash cans. It was precisely the concern of the elected officials: to see the city ignite and it again became reality after a first nightmare night. The promises of impartial justice, the announcement of a white march on Thursday afternoon, calls for calm, statements by the Head of State Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Mayor of Nanterre Patrick Jarry , did nothing about it, the city had a terrible night.
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At the start of the evening, when many families were finishing celebrating Aïd-el-Kébir, an important holiday for the Muslim community, a local elected official held a vigilante picket in front of a school attacked the previous night: “The anger is very big, all it took was a spark, it was so fragile. And this kid who dies… We hope, by our presence, to succeed in calming things down a bit. Burning the schools would be the worst”, explained Eric Solas, 47, present with parents of students from the Miriam-Makeba school. On their laptops, they showed a video of the day before where we saw about fifteen young men and hooded trying to enter the school building by breaking the door. “They didn’t succeed but they went to burn the youth center next door”lamented Jean-Yves Sioubalack, parent delegate, repeating: “It’s so sad, it’s so sad. »
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