France Violence: Rioters Ram Car Into Mayor’s House In Paris, Wife And Child Injured

International

oi-Deepika S

As violence continuous unabated in France, rioters rammed a car into the home of the mayor of a town south of Paris, injuring his wife and one of his children, mayor Vincent Jeanbrun said on Sunday.

The mayor L’Hay-les-Roses town tweeted that protesters rammed a car into his home before setting a fire while his family slept.

“Last night a milestone was reached in horror and disgrace,” the mayor tweeted.

The incident occured on the fifth night of chaos across France, where rioters have set cars on fire, attacked infrastructure, and clashed with security forces following the death of a 17-year-old boy.

The fast-spreading crisis is posing a new challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership and exposing deep-seated discontent in low-income neighborhoods over discrimination and lack of opportunity.

The 17-year-old whose death Tuesday spawned the anger, identified by his first name Nahel, was laid to rest Saturday in a Muslim ceremony in his hometown of Nanterre, a Paris suburb where emotion over his loss remains raw.

As night fell over the French capital, a small crowd gathered on the Champs-Elysees for a protest over Nahel’s death and police violence but met hundreds of officers with batons and shields guarding the iconic avenue and its Cartier and Dior boutiques.

In a less-chic neighborhood of northern Paris, protesters set off volleys of firecrackers and lit barricades on fire as police shot back with tear gas and stun grenades. A burning car hit the home of the mayor of the Paris suburb of l’Hay-les-Roses overnight.

Several schools, police stations, town halls and stores have been targeted by fires or vandalism in recent days but such a personal attack on a mayor’s home is unusual. Skirmishes erupted in the Mediterranean city of Marseille but appeared less intense than the night before, according to the Interior Ministry.

A beefed-up police contingent arrested 55 people there. Nationwide arrests were somewhat lower than the night before, which Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin attributed to “the resolute action of security forces.” Some 2,800 people have been detained overall since Nahel’s death on Tuesday. T

The heavy police deployment has been welcomed by some frightened residents of targeted neighbourhoods and shopowners whose stores have been ransacked – but it has further frustrated those who see police behavior as the core of France’s current crisis.