Tensions Ease in France: Three Police Injured, 350 Buildings and 300 Vehicles Damaged

The graffiti on the wall supports Nahel. (Wikimedia Commons/Guallendra)

JAKARTA - Tension on the streets of French cities has eased, with fewer than 160 rioters arrested, after rioting broke out last week following the killing of a teenager of north African descent by a police officer, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

The Interior Ministry said 157 people were arrested overnight, down from more than 700 the night before and more than 1.300 late Friday.

Three of the 45.000 police officers deployed overnight were injured, the ministry said, while some 350 buildings and 300 vehicles were damaged, according to preliminary figures, reported by Reuters July 3.

Riots broke out in French cities, following the death of Nehel Merzouk as a result of being shot by police last Tuesday, near the Nanterre-Préfecture RER station, during a police check conducted by two police motorbike riders in the rental car he was driving.

One of the officers opened fire on the young man at close range, fatally wounding him in the chest.

The shooter justified his actions, judging that Nahel refused to comply with his request. However, an amateur video contradicts his confession, shocking the government and sparking the worst riots France has seen in years.

The grandmother was angry because the officer shot her in the dead end.

The rest of the riots following the death of Nahel in France. (Wikimedia Commons/Toufik-de-Planoise)

"I was angry at the two policemen, because there were two of them, who hit my grandson's head with two rifle butts, and at the police who shot him directly in the heart, he could have shot him in the leg or in the arm," said Nadia when interviewed on BFMTV , as reported by Euronews.

"In this case, it was his life that they took," he said.

"My heart hurts. He has taken my grandson from me. This person has to pay, like everyone else. Those who break the law and beat the police will also be punished. I believe in justice. I believe in justice," explained Nadia.

The 38-year-old police officer who fired the fatal shot was charged with intentional homicide and jailed last Thursday.

Nahel was buried Saturday in the Mont-Valérien cemetery in Nanterre in the presence of her mother and grandmother and several hundred other people.

Nehel's death sparked longstanding complaints of discrimination, police violence and systemic racism within law enforcement agencies from human rights groups, as well as in the low-income suburbs that surround France's major cities.

Since Tuesday, rioters have torched cars, looted shops and targeted the town hall and other properties, including the home of Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of l'Hay-les-Roses in a suburb of Paris, which was attacked while his wife and children were sleeping.

"This is an absolute nightmare," Jeanbrun told BFM TV on Monday.

"We have been through a state of siege," he continued.

Jeanbrun, who is a member of the conservative Les Republicains, said in interviews he regretted the government had not declared a state of emergency which he said would have allowed police to protect his area from rioters.

"I myself grew up in L'Hay-des-Roses in this big housing block", he says.

"We are modest, we don't have much, but we want to overcome it, we hope to do it with hard work," he said.

At this stage, everything indicated the man who attacked his home was a young man from the same suburb, he added.