French police fired tear gas and clashed with protesters on Thursday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre after two nights of urban violence triggered by the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old teenager.
France’s government announced it would deploy tens of thousands more officers and crack down on neighbourhoods where buildings and vehicles were torched.
The killing of the teen, identified only by his first name, Nahel, came during a traffic stop on Tuesday. The incident captured on video shocked the country and stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing schemes and other disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
After a morning crisis meeting, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said policing will be more than quadrupled – from 9,000 officers to 40,000. In the Paris region alone, the number of officers deployed will more than double to 5,000.