Police clash with rioters as unrest continues for fifth night
A Paris suburb mayor said his home was ram-raided and set alight while his wife and children were asleep inside in what he has called an “assassination attempt” on his family amid the unrest that has gripped France following Tuesday’s shooting of a teenager by a police officer.
Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of the southern suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses, said his wife and one of their two children, aged five and seven, were injured as they fled the building in the early hours.
The official wrote on social media on Sunday: “Last night, a milestone was reached in horror and ignominy. My home was attacked and my family was the victim of an assassination attempt.”
An investigation for attempted murder has been opened, French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin confirmed, adding: “The perpetrators will answer for their heinous acts.”
Meanwhile, the grandmother of the killed teenager urged for an end to the riots and told a French broadcaster: “I tell the people who are rioting this: Do not smash windows, attack schools or buses. Stop!”
Riots continued to rage for a fifth night in France overnight, as 45,000 police were deployed and 719 people were arrested across the country by early on Sunday.
On Saturday, emotional mourners paid tribute at the funeral of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, where the teenager was killed during a police traffic stop.
