France braces for more protests after Police kill teenager

Kathmandu: France is bracing for further protests after police shot dead a teenager, an incident which French President Emmanuel Macron said has moved the entire nation”.

Clashes broke out between demonstrators and police overnight after an officer killed the 17-year-old in a Paris suburb, Nanterre. The teenager, named only as Nael M, allegedly failed to comply with a police order to stop his car on Tuesday.

He was driving a rental car when police pulled him over for breaking several road rules, prosecutors said. Emergency services tried to resuscitate the teenager at the scene but he died shortly afterwards.

The deadly police shooting was ‘inexplicable’ and ‘unforgivable’, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday, as the government raced to ease tensions.

A video circulating on social media, authenticated by the French news agency AFP, shows two police officers trying to stop the vehicle, with one pointing his weapon at the driver through the window and firing at close range when he apparently continues to drive.

The car moved a few dozen metres before crashing.

‘A teenager was killed. That is inexplicable and unforgivable,’ he said during a visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, saying the case had ‘moved the entire nation’.

Local residents held a protest outside police headquarters. Tensions soared later on Tuesday; demonstrators lit fires, set a car alight, destroyed bus stops and threw firecrackers towards police who responded with tear gas and dispersion grenades.