French rioting appears to slow six days after teenager’s death in Paris suburbs

Unrest across France sparked by the police shooting of a 17-year-old appeared to slow on its sixth night, but public buildings, cars and municipal rubbish bins nationwide were still targeted by fires and vandalism.

In all, according to the Interior Ministry, there were 157 arrests, out of a total of 3,354 since June 27, and two police stations were attacked, among other damage.

Around 45,000 officers were deployed nationwide to counter violence fuelled by anger over discrimination against people who trace their roots to former French colonies and live in low-income neighbourhoods.

Nahel, the teenager killed last Tuesday, was of Algerian descent and was shot in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

Across France, 297 vehicles were torched overnight, along with 34 buildings.

A 24-year-old firefighter died of a heart attack while responding to a blaze in an underground garage that spread to the apartment building above, according to a statement from Paris police.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, the statement said.

A burning car struck the home of the mayor of the Paris suburb L’Hay-les-Roses over the weekend, an unusually personal attack amid the backdrop of fires and vandalism targeting police stations and town halls.

French President Emmanuel Macron has blamed social media for the spread of the unrest and called on parents to take responsibility for their teenagers.

Justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told France Inter radio that parents who abdicate that responsibility “either through disinterest or deliberately” will be prosecuted.

Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun said his wife and one of his children were injured and criticised the government for doing too little, too late – and said blaming social media or parents is papering over a bigger problem.

“The base ingredients are still there. For several years now, all summer long, explosives go off that keep people from sleeping, that make them crazy,” he told BFM television on Monday.

“We are powerless summer after summer.”