France arrests hundreds more in fifth night of unrest

The violent protests that have rocked France in response to the murder of a 17-year-old by a police officer continued for a fifth night as authorities arrested hundreds across the country on Saturday and protesters clashed with police in riot gear.

A minister described the evening as quieter than the previous one, but local news media reported that riots, looting and skirmishes in Marseille, the second largest city in France. While the number of officers deployed across the country had not increased, more were sent to quell protesters in Lyon, Grenoble and Marseille. said the interior ministerGerald Darmanin.

Tensions remained high after Saturday’s funeral for the 17-year-old, of Algerian and Moroccan descent, who was shot dead during a traffic stop on Tuesday in Nanterre, a Paris suburb. Many protesters saw themselves in the victim and linked his fate to their own experiences of neglect and racial discrimination in France’s poorer urban suburbs.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Mr Darmanin, the interior minister, said 427 people had been arrested on Saturday night. By Friday night, more than 1,300 arrests had been made. He added that 45,000 police officers had been deployed across the country by Saturday night, a similar number to the night before.

Maud Bodukian reporting contributed.