Buses and trams in Paris will be stopped every evening at 9pm (8pm Irish time) until further notice, regional transport authority IDFM said, following three nights of rioting over the fatal shooting of a teenager by police, reports RTE.
Riots spread across France’s major cities as President Emmanuel Macron struggled to contain the growing crisis.
French police arrested 875 people during overnight riots, the interior ministry said, updating the previous figure to 667.
249 policemen were injured.
Initial public transport closures were “for the safety of our workers and passengers,” the IDFM said after infrastructure was attacked during the violence, reports RTE.
This morning, 23 bus lines out of the city’s 350 were not running, two tram lines were completely closed and others were partially operating or experiencing long delays, the RATP operator said.
Forty thousand police officers were deployed in France – almost four times the number on Wednesday – but there was little sign that the government’s call to reduce violence would quell popular anger.
President Macron cut short his trip to Brussels – where he was attending a European Union summit – to chair a crisis meeting, the second in as many days on violence, his office said.
“We are concerned by the killing of a 17-year-old of North African descent by police in France on Tuesday,” UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a media briefing in Geneva, reports RTE.
A Nike shoe store in central Paris was vandalized and 14 people were arrested.
Videos on social media showed numerous fires across the country, including in a tram in east Lyon.
In Marseille, France’s second largest city, police fired tear gas grenades during clashes with youths at the popular tourist destination of Le Vieux Port, the city’s main newspaper La Provence reported.
“The public prosecutor considers that the legal conditions for using the weapon have not been met,” Pascal Prache, the prosecutor, told a news conference, reports RTE.
The teenager was shot Tuesday morning rush hour. Initially, he did not stop when the Mercedes AMG he was driving appeared in the bus lane. Two policemen stuck with a car in a traffic jam.
As the driver tried to flee, the officer fired through the driver’s window at close range. Nahel died from gunshot wounds to the left shoulder and chest, Prache said.
The officer admitted to firing the fatal shot, prosecutors said, telling investigators he wanted to prevent a car chase out of fear that he or someone else would be injured after the teen allegedly committed several traffic violations.
During the Nanterre memorial march for Nahle, participants protested what was perceived as a culture of police impunity and a culture of failure to reform law enforcement in a country that faced waves of riots and protests against police behaviour.
“I have nothing against the police. I have something against one person, he who killed my son. He did not have to kill my son,” Nahel’s mother told France 5 television after the march, reports RTE.
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