Fiery protests grip France for third night over deadly police shooting of teen

Police forces clash with youths in Nanterre, outside Paris, on Thursday (Christophe Ena/AP)

French protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police in the streets of some French cities early on Friday morning as tensions mounted over the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old that has shocked the nation.

Armoured police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot the teenage delivery driver, who is only being identified by his first name, Nahel.