Until late Wednesday night, hundreds of rioters again clashed with law enforcement west of Paris, where 17-year-old Nahel was killed by a policeman after a refusal to comply.
Before 10 p.m. and sunset, the situation was calm on Nanterre. It was after nightfall, around 11 p.m., that the first real scuffles broke out in this town in the Hauts-de-Seine department. The clashes began in the Vieux Pont district, where Nahel lived, who was shot dead on Tuesday. Our special envoys Pierre Olivier and Robin Cussenot describe scenes of urban violence: fireworks fired at the police, hooded youths who threw all sorts of objects on the road before setting it on fire, burned cars, tear gas fire… .
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But the heart of the riots was in the Pablo-Picasso district, a set of winding alleys intertwining around the famous “Cloud towers”, buildings from the 1970s mixing rounded and straight lines designed by the French architect Emile Aillaud. Garbage cans and street furniture burn on the road. Thick black smoke rises. Well-organized groups of young people watch the entrances to the area, criss-crossed by scooters with camouflaged license plates, in search of the police.
Inside the district, where there is an acrid smell of burning, several hundred young rioters confront the police with firecrackers and fireworks. The security forces remain cautiously at a distance, responding mainly with tear gas canisters and a few charges which are enough for the rioters to disperse briefly.
It is avenue Pablo-Picasso, the artery that crosses the district, that the clashes are the most intense. Crisscrossed by the police, the street reveals seven charred cars ending in flames. As soon as the order to retreat was given, several hundred young people reinvested the route, quickly erecting a makeshift barricade with construction barriers. Two new cars are set on fire.
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According to a police source, the Pablo-Picasso district was where the riots were concentrated in Nanterre. But clashes erupted throughout the Paris region, revealing from the highway that surrounds the capital clouds of thick black smoke, explosions of fireworks dominating the bars of buildings and countless fire trucks and law enforcement vehicles rushing all screaming sirens.
In the Vieux-Pont district of Nanterre many young people knew Nahel, and despite the violence of that night, they assure that they will be present this Thursday for the white march in memory of the young man.
(and with AFP)