JABAR EKSPRES – French President Emmanuel Macron chaired an emergency meeting between ministers on Thursday morning, after widespread protests across the country following the police shooting death of a 17-year-old teenager. Macron attended the meeting at the offices of the Interior Ministry and denounced the violence as unacceptable under the law, as reported by Le Figaro daily citing a statement from the French Presidency office.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also shared via Twitter on Thursday morning that the number of people arrested in the protests had reached 150.
The protests were triggered by the police shooting of a 17-year-old delivery driver named Nahel in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday. The shooting occurred after Nahel violated traffic rules.
Mobs then took to the streets in various regions of the country, including Nanterre, Lyon, Lille, Toulouse and Viry-Chatillon. They set fire to vehicles, trash bins, and other public facilities in some areas.
In the cities of Toulouse and Lille, demonstrators threw stones at the police who responded with tear gas to disperse the crowd.
According to prosecutors, Nahel was shot dead by police after breaking traffic rules and refusing to pull over his vehicle.
Nahel’s death led to protests in Nanterre and sparked clashes between demonstrators and police on Wednesday night. The policeman who killed Nahel, a 38-year-old officer, has been detained by the Inspectorate General of the National Police as part of an investigation conducted by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office on suspicion of premeditated murder.
