France Urges Calm As Dozens Arrested After Police Shooting

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday urged calm after 150 people were arrested and public buildings attacked in protests over the police killing of a teenager that has incensed France.

Nahel M., 17, was shot in the chest at point-blank range in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday in an incident that has reignited debate in France about police tactics.

Cars and bins were torched in parts of Paris and nationwide overnight, and protesters launched fireworks at riot police, who fired flashball projectiles. A tramway was set alight in a Paris suburb.

“We are sick of being treated like this. This is for Nahel, we are Nahel,” said two young men calling themselves “Avengers” as they wheeled rubbish bins from a nearby estate to a burning barricade in the capital

Branding the overnight clashes “unjustifiable”, Macron told a crisis meeting of ministers that the coming hours and an afternoon march in memory of Nahel in Nanterre should be marked by “contemplation and respect”.

“The last few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations, but also schools and town halls… against institutions and the Republic,” he said.

The riots are deeply troubling for Macron who had been looking to move past a half-year of sometimes violent protests over his controversial pension reform.

The teenager was killed as he pulled away from police who tried to stop him for traffic infractions.

A video circulating on social media and authenticated by AFP showed two policemen standing by the side of the stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at the driver.

A voice is heard saying: “You are going to get a bullet in the head.”

The police officer then appears to fire as the car abruptly drives off.

Clashes first erupted as the video emerged, contradicting police accounts that the teenager was driving at the officer

On Thursday, a prosecutor said the policeman’s use of his firearm did not meet the legal conditions under which such force can be used.

Pascal Prache, state prosecutor in the area where the killing took place, also said that the policeman was being taken before a magistrates