France: hundreds detained in fourth night of unrest as 45,000 police deployed

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the next hours "will be decisive" as violence sparked by the death of a teenager in police custody in a Paris suburb continued for a fourth consecutive night. Darmanen told TF1 television that 45,000 police, including special forces, would be deployed across France on Friday night, adding, "Fully legitimate emotions can in no way justify riots and offenses. "

A number of shopping centers in the Paris suburbs, as well as an Apple store in downtown Strasbourg, were looted on Friday afternoon during the ongoing riots sparked by a police shooting in Nanterre on Tuesday that killed a 17-year-old boy''of African descent named Nael M. Bus and streetcar services were halted from 21:00 across France. Marseille, France's second largest city, banned public demonstrations and said all public transportation would stop at 19:00 local time. Protests were also banned in Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulouse, Montpellier, Grenoble and Annecy.

In a late-night Twitter post, Darmanen said 270 people had been detained. He added that "significant reinforcements" would arrive in Marseille, where more than 80 people have been detained. About 20 people were detained in and around Lyon, while rioters set fire to cars and fired fireworks at police. Police in Paris said they evacuated Concorde Square as demonstrators gathered despite''on a police ban on unsanctioned gatherings in key squares in the city center, including the Champs-Elysees and the Tuileries Gardens.

In the Rouen suburb of Le Petit Quévy, a young man died after falling from the roof of a supermarket in a shopping center that had been robbed. "The next hours will be decisive and I know I can count on your efforts," Darmanen told firefighters and police officers trying to contain the unrest, adding, "The human and material reinforcements we are now sending will give you the means to protect the republic and its values." He said more than 900 people with an average age of 17 were detained on Thursday night.

President Emmanuel Macron earlier on Friday urged parents to leave teenagers at home because''The government said it was considering "all options" to contain the violence threatening to escalate. Promising additional security forces, Macron, who left the EU summit in Brussels early to attend a crisis cabinet meeting, appealed to the 'responsibility of mothers and fathers' and said it was not the job of the French republic to replace them. The president also said social media plays a "significant role" in saying that violence is organized online and he wants platforms like Snapchat and TikTok to remove sensitive content.

A total of 492 buildings were damaged, 2,000 cars were burned and 3,880 fires were set Thursday night across France as mostly teenagers set fire to buildings, cars, buses and looted stores across France again. The death of Nael M. has fueled long-term resentment in poor, racially mixed urban communities in France over repeated incidents of police violence and accusations of systemic racism.

Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne said the government was considering "all options" and called the violence "unacceptable and inexcusable." She also said armored vehicles of the Gendarmerie would be deployed in some areas Friday night, and several large mass' would be canceled'events, including a rock concert at the Stade de France. Under pressure from right-wing parties to declare a state of emergency that would give authorities extra powers to ban demonstrations and restrict freedom of movement, the government hopes to avoid a repeat of 2005, when the deaths of two boys of African descent during a police pursuit sparked three weeks of unrest.

The Foreign Ministry has dismissed as "totally unfounded" United Nations allegations of police racism following a statement by a spokesman for the UN human rights office who said "this is a moment when the country must seriously address the profound problems of racism and racial discrimination in the''law enforcement agencies'.

In a widely condemned statement, unions representing half of France's police force said Friday they were fighting "rats," adding that police officers were "on the front lines because we are at war." They added: "Against these savage hordes, it is not enough to call for calm, you have to enforce it." Laurent Esquerre, head of the UNSA trade union federation, repudiated his police branch's statement and called for calm and an end to the violence. Green Party leader Marine Tondelier called it a "call for civil war," adding, "Can we finally say we have a structural problem in the police? "

Despite the presence of 40,000 police officers across the country, the interior ministry said that in''Thursday night, 79 police stations and 119 other government buildings were attacked, including 34 town halls and 28 schools. The violence spanned Marseille, Lyon, Pau, Toulouse and Lille, as well as parts of Paris and its suburbs, including the working-class suburb of Nanterre, where Nael was shot dead after refusing to comply with police demands to stop. The 38-year-old officer involved in the shooting, who said he fired because he feared he and a colleague or someone else might be hit by a car, was charged with premeditated murder and taken into custody. His lawyer, Laurent-Franc Lienard, told BFMTV that his client aimed down at the driver's leg but was pushed, causing him to shoot himself in the chest. "Obviously [the officer] didn't mean to kill the driver," Lienar said.

Prosecutors said that