Ongoing protests in France

Protests in France entered their third day on Friday, with people taking to the streets to protest as decades of tensions with police boiled over after a 17-year-old boy named Nahel M was shot and killed at point-blank range by police in Nanterre. The protests saw people setting cars on fire and throwing projectiles at the police. More than 667 arrests were made overnight, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Public buildings, including schools, town halls and the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics in Seine-Saint-Denis were also set on fire. Decades of distrust and animosity towards the police force, widely regarded by French citizens with immigrant backgrounds as institutionally racist and hostile towards them, have once again spilt over into mass protests. So far 40,000 police officers have been deployed to tackle unrest nationwide - including 5,000 in Paris. The outbreak of violence is some of the worst since protests in 2005 that resulted in three weeks of riots and a state of emergency in the suburbs of Paris and other cities following the death of two teenagers who were electrocuted as they tried to flee from the police. President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency security meeting following the riots and urged for a return to order, while French footballer Kylian Mbappe and actor Omar Sy have condemned police brutality Subscribe to our channel: Middle East Eye Website: Follow us on TikTok: @middleeasteye Follow us on Instagram: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter: