Sharjah24 - AFP: On Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron urged restraint after 150 people were detained and public facilities were assaulted during irate protests over the police shooting of a youngster that had angered France.
Nahel M., 17, was shot in the chest at point-blank range on Tuesday in an incident that has reignited debate in France about police tactics long criticised by rights groups.
Cars and bins were torched in parts of Paris overnight and protesters launched fireworks at riot police, who fired flashball projectiles to try to disperse the angry crowds.
"We are sick of being treated like this. This is for Nahel, we are Nahel," said two young men calling themselves "Avengers" as they wheeled rubbish bins from a nearby estate to add to a burning barricade in the capital.
As the situation has grown more volatile, Macron called an early morning crisis meeting of his ministers.
Branding the overnight clashes "unjustifiable", Macron told the meeting the "last few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations, but also schools and town halls... against institutions and the Republic."
The violence is a deeply troubling development for Macron who had been looking to move past a half-year of sometimes violent protests that erupted over his controversial pension reform.
There had already been clashes the previous evening and while Wednesday night began calmly, unrest erupted in other French cities, including Toulouse, Dijon and Lyon before violence after midnight hit the Paris region, where around 2,000 riot police had been deployed.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter as he announced the 150 arrests figure that the violence was "intolerable".
He expressed support for police but added in an apparent swipe at the hard-left: "Shame on those who did not call for calm."
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