The Situation in France is Gradually Calming: 3.200 People Arrested After the Riot, Minister of Home Affairs Darmanin Highlights the Role of Parents

Riots as a result of Nahel's death in France. (Wikimedia Commons/Toufic-de-Planoise)

JAKARTA - The situation in France is gradually improving following riots in a number of cities for five nights since last Tuesday, while thousands of people have been detained by security forces following the incident which damaged thousands of vehicles and buildings.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in a press conference Monday praised the performance of the security forces, highlighting the arrests of thousands of people in connection with the riots which were dominated by teenagers.

"Law enforcement has been very active. A total of 3.200 people have been detained in three days, an unprecedented figure," he said, noting the average age of detainees was 17.

"Of these 3.200 people, 60 percent have never had problems with the law before," continued Darmanin.

Furthermore, Minister of Home Affairs Darmanin said, "it is necessary to maintain open lines of communication with the surrounding environment, at the same time being tough on criminals."

"We should not seek social explanations for non-existent riots," he believes.

Riots have broken out in France since Tuesday last week, after police killed Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old teenager of Algerian-Moroccan descent. The policeman who shot him has been detained.

Since then, rioters have torched cars, looted shops and targeted town halls, public schools and state-owned properties. The suburbs of Paris and Marseille in the south have become flashpoints.

Home Affairs Minister Darmanin took aim at families letting children wreak havoc on the streets, saying the average of those arrested was 17 years old with some being 12 years old.

"It is not the business of the national police or the gendarmerie or the mayor of the city or the state, to solve the problem of a 12-year-old child setting fire to a school. This is a matter of parental authority," Interior Minister Darmanin said during a visit to Reims.

Some 45.000 police would be deployed for four consecutive nights, he said, to try to stop the rioting which has seen more than 5.600 cars torched, 1.000 private property set ablaze or damaged and 250 police stations attacked.

During a meeting at the Presidential Palace on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the authorities would side with the police and the gendarmerie.

He called on the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Justice to take all necessary measures to restore public order in the country.