For the fifth night in a row, unrest continued in France that began after a 17-year-old boy was shot dead by police on Tuesday. During the night to Sunday, close to 500 people have been arrested, while demonstrators are said to have rammed mayor Vincent Jeanbrun’s home with a car south of Paris.
“Min family became the victim of an attempted murder,” he writes in a post on Twitter.
According to preliminary figures from the Ministry of the Interior at 03:30 on Sunday morning, 486 people have been arrested around France. 194 of them had been arrested in Paris and the city’s suburbs. According to previous information from the department, during the evening and the night before, 56 had been detained in Marseille and 21 in Lyon.
However, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin assesses that the intensity of the violence has decreased compared to the previous day.
“Calmer night thanks to the decisive action of the police,” he writes in a post on Twitter.
Reinforced police
Around 45,000 police officers were deployed on the night of Sunday, of which 7,000 were in the Paris area. The police force was reinforced, particularly in Marseille and Lyon, which were hit hard by riots and looting during the night of Saturday.
The French newspaper Le Figaro reports that there have been clashes between police and rioters in Nice, where a department store is said to have been looted and 33 people are said to have been arrested.
In the city of Rennes, the police have been fired with fireworks and the mayor Vincent Jeanbrun of L’Haÿ-les-Roses in the Hauts-de-Seine writes on Twitter at 02:00 that a car was set on fire outside his home, the newspaper writes.
Mayor’s house attacked
During the night to Sunday, protesters allegedly rammed the home of Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun with a car south of Paris and then started a fire, reports Le Monde. According to the mayor, his wife and one of his children were injured in the incident.
“My home was attacked and my family was the victim of an assassination attempt. My determination to protect and serve the Republic is greater than ever. I will not give in,” he writes in a post on Twitter.