Police clash with rioters as unrest continues for fourth night
Emotional mourners have been paying tribute at the funeral of the teenager who was shot dead by a police officer in France, sparking riots across the country.
French President Emmanuel Macron has postponed a state visit to Germany that was due to begin on Sunday due to the unrest, both countries have said.
Nahel Merzouk, 17, has been laid to rest on Saturday following an Islamic ceremony held in a mosque close to his home in the north-western Paris suburb of Nanterre, where he was shot in the chest as he sat at the wheel of a stationary Mercedes last Tuesday.
Outside the Ibn Badis Mosque, Therese, 60 a friend of the family who lives next door to Nahel’s grandmother, paid tribute to Nahel as a “kind and smiley” teenager and told The Independent the community is in complete shock.
France’s Interior Ministry said in an update on Saturday that 1,311 people were arrested overnight, while the government deployed 45,000 police in attempts to quell the nationwide riots, which raged for a fourth consecutive night, triggered by the teenager’s killing.
