Teenager’s death sparks protests for a second night

Cars have been set alight and fireworks shot at police in the Paris suburb of Nanterre in a second night of unrest following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop there.

The teenager, named as Nahel M, who was of North African origin, died from bullet wounds to the chest. His family are pressing charges and a police officer has been detained on homicide charges.

Shortly before midnight on Wednesday, a trail of overturned vehicles burned as fireworks fizzed at police lines on Nanterre’s Avenue Pablo Picasso, Reuters reported.

Police also clashed with protesters in the northern city of Lille and the southwest city of Toulouse, and unrest was reported in Amiens, Dijon and the Essonne administrative department south of the French capital.

French media reported incidents in numerous other locations across the greater Paris region. Videos on social media showed dozens of fireworks being directed at the Montreuil town hall, on the eastern edge of Paris.

President Emmanuel Macron has called the shooting “unexplainable and inexcusable”.

“Nothing justifies the death of a young man,” he said, before calling for the justice system to do its work.

The interior ministry has called for calm, and said 2,000 police have been mobilised in the Paris region.

Rights groups allege systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies in France, a charge Mr Macron has previously denied.

In a video shared on TikTok, a woman identified as the victim’s mother called for a memorial march in Nanterre on Thursday. “Everyone come, we will lead a revolt for my son,” she said.

“This Tuesday morning, he gave me a big kiss, and he told me: ‘Mum, I love you.’ I told him: ‘I love you, be careful,’” she said. “An hour later, what do they tell me? That my son was shot. What am I going to do? He was my life. He was my best friend. He was my son. He was everything to me.”