France riots enter fourth night as interior minister says next hours ‘will be decisive’

45,000 police officers deployed as cities across country ban public demonstrations and limit transport

Police officers stand guard in front of protesters on Concorde square during a protest in Paris, France, Friday, June 30, 2023. French President Emmanuel Macron urged parents Friday to keep teenagers at home and proposed restrictions on social media to quell rioting spreading across France over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has said the coming hours “will be decisive” as violence triggered by the fatal police shooting of a teenager during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb flared for a fourth consecutive night.

Darmanin said on TF1 television that 45,000 police officers, including special forces, would be deployed across France on Friday night, adding: “Entirely legitimate emotions can in no circumstances justify disorder and delinquency.” Shops in several malls in Paris suburbs were looted on Friday afternoon, as well as an Apple store in the centre of Strasbourg, amid continuing rioting sparked by the shooting of Nahel M, 17, who was of north African descent, in Nanterre on Tuesday.