E-Paper
Violent protests rock France, foreign tourists cancel trip: 8 points
France deployed 45,000 police officers and some armoured vehicles on the streets on Saturday as riots rocked French cities for a fourth night.
Days of violent protests in France after the fatal police shooting of a teenager have plunged President Emmanuel Macron into the gravest crisis of his leadership since the Yellow Vest protests that started in 2018. Videos and images on social media show protesters torching vehicles, and buildings and looting stores in several French cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Lille as well as Paris.
The riots broke out after Nahel M., a 17-year-old boy of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was shot by an officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday in the Nanterre suburb. The death was captured on camera, reigniting the longstanding complaints by poor and racially mixed urban communities of police violence and racism. Macron, however, denies there is systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies.
Here are the top updates from protests in France:
- An explosion rocked Marseille's old port area and city authorities said they did not believe there were any casualties. Rioters in central Marseille looted a gun store and stole some hunting rifles but no ammunition, police said.
- The town hall and administrative complex in the city of Persan in Val-d'Oise department was engulfed in flames after being set on fire by rioters. The fire services were struggling to reach the location due to blocked roads.
- A video showed rioters looting a motorcycle store in Lyon, France's third-largest city. The gendarmes police force deployed armoured personnel carriers and a helicopter to quell the unrest in the city.
- Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin asked local authorities across France to halt bus and tram traffic from 9pm (local time) and said 45,000 officers were being deployed, 5,000 more than on Thursday.
- The French president accused social media platforms of playing a "considerable role" in encouraging rioters to copy the acts of violence and said he said he expected “a spirit of responsibility” from the social media platforms.
- The government is reportedly in talks with social media platforms to speed up the process to remove content inciting violence, reported AP.
- The ongoing violent protests have started to impact France's tourism sector, with hotels and restaurants facing cancellations while some have also suffered damage in the unrest.
- The GHR organisation for independent hotels and restaurants in France said that images being shown by foreign TV networks do not correspond to reality. "Will the violence and riots continue and cause a real wave of cancellations? That's the risk," managing director Franck Trouet told AFP. "Asian tourists, in particular, who are very concerned about security, may not hesitate to postpone or cancel their trip," he warned.
(Compiled with inputs from AFP, Reuters, AP)
