France deploys 40,000 police to deal with protests, arrests more than 420 people

Firefighters extinguish a fire at a house set on fire in Roubaix, France, amid protests.

AFP news agency on June 30 quoted a police source as saying that French authorities expected urban violence to occur in the "next nights", after the police shot dead a teenager while checking traffic violations, leading to a wave of protests.

Teenager Nael M. (17 years old) was shot on June 27 in the suburb of Nanterre in the west of the capital Paris. The suburb of Clamart in Paris has announced a curfew from 9pm to 6am, from June 29 to July 3.

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Officials in Paris announced on June 29 that bus and tram services around the capital would be suspended from 9pm every night, "to ensure the protection of staff and passengers".

Some 40,000 police have been deployed across the country to deal with any further protests, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

Mounia, the victim's mother, marched in the city of Nanterre to commemorate her son.

A police officer has been arrested and charged in connection with the death of the teenager, who was shot in the chest at a traffic stop on the morning of June 27.

The incident has reignited longstanding grievances about policing and racism in France’s low-income, multi-ethnic suburbs. Protests continued to erupt in France for a third consecutive night on the evening of June 29 (local time), with many protesters burning cars and vandalizing buildings.

Minister Darmanin said that as of 3:00 a.m. on June 30 (local time, 8:00 a.m. in Vietnam), at least 421 people had been arrested nationwide.

"There were no direct violent confrontations with police forces, but there were some shops vandalized, businesses looted or even burned," a national police official said.

Public buildings were also targeted, with a police station in the Pyrenees city of Pau attacked with petrol bombs, according to regional authorities.

In her first interview after the incident, Mounia M., the victim's mother, said, "I don't blame the police, I only blame one person, the person who took my child's life."

France 5 quoted her as saying that the 38-year-old police officer "saw an Arab face, a child, and wanted to kill him". Nahel was her only child.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for calm and said the violence during the protests was "unjustified". The wave of protests is a new challenge for the leader, following large-scale protests against pension increases.

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