France riots: Looters break into gun shop as hundreds arrested on fourth night of violence
Looters broke into a gun shop in Marseille and hundreds of arrests were made across France as riots continued for a fourth night.
Violent protests spread throughout the country after a 17-year-old, named as Nahel M, was shot by police during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday.
In the aftermath, people have taken to the streets on four consecutive nights to protest, setting cars alight, throwing stones and fireworks, and ransacking shops.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told TF1 television there had already been 471 arrests made so far overnight, with more than 80 in Marseille.
Police said looters broke into a shop selling guns in the city and ran off with several hunting rifles. One person was arrested nearby with one of the weapons, officers said.
Social media images showed an explosion rocking Marseille’s old port area. City authorities said they were investigating the cause but did not believe there were any casualties.
The mayor of the city, Benoit Payan, has called for the national government to send additional troops to the city, describing scenes of unacceptable “pillaging and violence”.
In a message to fire and police forces, interior minister Darmanin said: “The next hours will be decisive and I know I can count on your flawless efforts.”
He added that 45,000 extra police officers, including paramilitary gendarmes, had been deployed across France on Friday – 5,000 more than the previous night and that though the level of violence was “unacceptable” the country was not yet at the point where the government felt it needed to declare a state of emergency.
Clashes were reported in several other cities, including Lyon in the southeast.
There was also looting reported earlier in Strasbourg in broad daylight, including from an Apple store and several supermarkets.
In central Paris, police removed a group of protesters from the Place de la Concorde, while fires were started in other parts of the capital.
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Fireworks lit in Lyon streets as rioting continues across France
French football superstar Kylian Mbappe, who previously described Nahel’s death as an “unacceptable situation”, appealed for calm.
He wrote on Twitter: “Violence solves nothing… There are other peaceful and constructive ways to express yourself. It is in this that our energies and our thoughts must be concentrated.
“The time of violence must end to give way to that of mourning, dialogue and reconstruction.”
A man stands near a burning container in Paris on Friday
People run away during clashes with police in Lyon. Pic: AP
Police officers face off with protesters in Place de la
Concorde, Paris, on Friday evening. Pic: AP
Police said 917 arrests were made during clashes overnight on Thursday and into Friday morning.
Officials said the average age of those detained was 17 – with some as young as 13.
Some key locations where the rioting has taken place
Elsewhere across France, a young man has died after he fell from the roof of a supermarket in the city of Rouen during rioting, local authorities said.
A police source claimed the man plunged from the building, in the suburb of Petit-Quevilly in the Bruyeres shopping centre, while it was being looted overnight on Thursday.
President Emmanuel Macron has urged parents to keep teenagers at home to limit potential rioting in the coming days.
He also blamed social media for fuelling copycat violence and said it had played a “significant role in the events of the past few days”.
Read more:
Another night of looting and lawlessness – and nobody knows what will happen next
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View of burnt buses at a RATP bus depot in Aubervilliers, damaged during night clashes
Mr Macron has also been urged to get a grip on the crisis after going to an Elton John concert on Wednesday, the day after the shooting.
“While France was on fire, Macron was not at the side of his minister of the interior or the police, but he preferred to applaud Elton John,” said Thierry Mariani, an MEP for National Rally.
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Third night of rioting in France
Youths ‘intoxicated by video games’
Mr Macron said a third of the individuals arrested on Thursday were “young people, sometimes very young”, and that “it’s the parents’ responsibility” to keep their children at home.
“We sometimes have the feeling that some of them are living in the streets [of] the video games that have intoxicated them,” he said of rioters.
On Friday, following a second crisis meeting, Mr Darmanin issued an order to stop buses and tram services at night.
When asked on French TV if the government might declare a state of emergency, the minister said: “Quite simply, we’re not ruling out any hypothesis and we’ll see after tonight what the President of the Republic chooses.”
Read more:
Mbappe speaks out after teen’s killing
Analysis: Tear gas and stun grenades won’t stop riots
Why are people protesting in France?
Authorities in the Paris region had already announced a transport shutdown to protect staff and passengers. The city’s Metro system will also shut an hour earlier this weekend following a request from local police.
Concerts by Canadian-born French pop star Mylène Farmer – scheduled to have been held at Paris’ Stade de France stadium on Friday and Saturday night – have been cancelled due to the riots, according to an official from the Seine-Saint-Denis district.
Tour de France organisers said they were ready to adapt to any situation when the bicycle race enters the country on Monday after starting in the Spanish city of Bilbao.
On Thursday, 40,000 police officers were deployed across France – nearly four times the number mobilised on Wednesday.
French police stand in position as fireworks go off during clashes with youth on Thursday
‘He didn’t want to kill him’
Thus far, appeals from the government to de-escalate the situation continue to fall on deaf ears.
In Nanterre, where the police shooting took place, protesters torched cars, barricaded streets and hurled projectiles at police following a vigil.
Armoured police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the Paris suburb.
Meanwhile, the police officer who shot and killed the teenager asked the family of the boy for forgiveness.
His lawyer Laurent-Franck Lienard told BFMTV: “The first words he pronounced were to say sorry and the last words he said were to say sorry to the family.
“He is devastated, he doesn’t get up in the morning to kill people. He didn’t want to kill him.”
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France protests: Car smashes into Lidl
Mr Lienard added that his client’s detention was being used to try to calm rioters.
The teenager’s burial is scheduled for Saturday, according to Nanterre Mayor Patrick Jarry, who said the country needs to “push for changes” in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
“There’s a feeling of injustice in many residents’ minds, whether it’s about school achievement, getting a job, access to culture, housing and other life issues,” he said.
“I believe we are in that moment when we need to face the urgency [of the situation].”
US president-elect Donald Trump has suggested Israel and Hamas could agree a Gaza ceasefire by the end of the week.
Talks between Israeli and Hamas representatives resumed in the Qatari capital Doha yesterday, after US President Joe Biden indicated a deal to stop the fighting was “on the brink” on Monday.
A draft agreement has been sent to both sides. It includes provisions for the release of hostages and a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.
Qatar says Israel and Hamas are at their “closest point” yet to a ceasefire deal.
Two Hamas officials said the group has accepted the draft agreement, with Israel still considering the deal.
An Israeli official said a deal is close but “we are not there” yet.
More than 46,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its ground offensive in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Read more:
What’s in the proposed deal?
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on beachfront cafe in Deir al Balah. Pic: Reuters
Biden hails possibility of agreement
President Biden said it would include a hostage release deal and a “surge” of aid to Palestinians, in his final foreign policy speech as president.
“So many innocent people have been killed, so many communities have been destroyed. Palestinian people deserve peace,” he said.
“The deal would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started.”
Qatari mediators have sent Israel and Hamas a draft proposal for an agreement to halt the fighting.
Analysis:
Deal might be close, but there are many unanswered questions
Pic: Reuters
Trump: ‘We’re very close’
President-elect Donald Trump has also discussed a possible peace deal during a phone interview with the Newsmax channel.
“We’re very close to getting it done and they have to get it done,” he said.
“If they don’t get it done, there’s going to be a lot of trouble out there, a lot of trouble, like they have never seen before.
“And they will get it done. And I understand there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished and maybe by the end of the week. But it has to take place, it has to take place.”
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Donald Trump’s inauguration 2.0
Pic: AP
Israeli official: Former Hamas leader held up deal
Speaking on Tuesday as negotiations resumed in Qatar, an anonymous Israeli official said that an agreement was “close, but we are not there”.
They accused Hamas of previously “dictating, not negotiating” but said this has changed in the last few weeks.
“Yahya Sinwar was the main obstacle for a deal,” they added.
Sinwar, believed to be the mastermind of the 7 October attacks, led Hamas following the assassination of his predecessor but was himself killed in October last year.
Under Sinwar, the Israeli official claimed, Hamas was “not in a rush” to bring a hostage deal but this has changed since his death and since the IDF “started to dismantle the Shia axis”.
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Biden: ‘Never, never, never, ever give up’
Iran ‘weaker than it’s been in decades’
Yesterday, President Biden also hailed Washington’s support for Israel during two Iranian attacks in 2024.
“All told, Iran is weaker than it’s been in decades,” the president said.
Mr Biden claimed America’s adversaries were weaker than when he took office four years ago and that the US was “winning the worldwide competition”.
“Compared to four years ago, America is stronger, our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are
weaker,” he said.
“We have not gone to war to make these things happen.”
The US president is expected to give a farewell address on Wednesday.
A draft ceasefire deal on the table between Israel and Hamas would see 33 hostages set free and a phased withdrawal of IDF forces from parts of Gaza.
President Joe Biden said an agreement to stop the fighting was “on the brink” and high level negotiations between the two sides resumed in Qatar on Tuesday.
The deal would see a number of things happen in a first stage, with negotiations for the second stage beginning in the third week of the ceasefire.
It would also allow a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been devastated by more than a year of war.
Details of what the draft proposal entails have been emerging on Tuesday, reported by Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages hold photos of their loved ones during a protest on 8 January. Pic: AP
Hostages to be returned
In the first stage of the potential ceasefire, 33 hostages would be set free.
These include women (including female soldiers), children, men over the age of 50, wounded and sick.
Israel believes most of these hostages are alive but there has not been any official confirmation from Hamas.
In return for the release of the hostages, Israel would free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
People serving long sentences for deadly attacks would be included in this but Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October attack would not be released.
An arrangement to prevent Palestinian “terrorists” from going back to the West Bank would be included in the deal, an anonymous Israeli official said.
Read more:
A timeline of events since the 7 October attacks
The hostages who still haven’t returned home
Smoke billows as buildings lie in ruin in Beit Hanoun in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza
The agreement also includes a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, with IDF troops remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages.
Security arrangements would be implemented at the Philadelphi corridor – a narrow strip of land that runs along the border between Egypt and Gaza – with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal.
The Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza would start to work gradually to allow the crossing of people who are sick and other humanitarian cases out of Gaza for treatment.
Unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed to return to their homes, with a mechanism introduced to ensure no weapons are moved there.
“We will not leave the Gaza Strip until all our hostages are back home,” the Israeli official said.
What will happen to Gaza in the future?
There is less detail about the future of Gaza – from how it will be governed, to any guarantees that this agreement will bring a permanent end to the war.
“The only thing that can answer for now is that we are ready for a ceasefire,” the Israeli official said.
“This is a long ceasefire and the deal that is being discussed right now is for a long one. There is a big price for releasing the hostages and we are ready to pay this price.”
The international community has said Gaza must be run by Palestinians, but there has not been a consensus about how this should be done – and the draft ceasefire agreement does not seem to address this either.
In the past, Israel has said it will not end the war leaving Hamas in power. It also previously rejected the possibility of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governing powers in the West Bank, from taking over the administration of Gaza.
Since the beginning of its military campaign in Gaza, Israel has also said it would retain security control over the territory after the fighting ends.
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