A 24-year-old firefighter has died in Saint-Denis, near Paris, when he was putting out a fire involving several vehicles early Sunday, in what has been the sixth consecutive night of riots in France after the death of Nahel, 17, of a police shot. “A young corporal of the Paris fire brigade died despite being treated very quickly by his team,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Twitter. The incident, as he added, took place in “an underground car park.”
The ministry in turn reported the arrest last night of some 157 people and three injured among the security forces. It also reported 352 fires on public roads and 297 burnt-out cars. A police station and another one for gendarmes were attacked.
The death of the firefighter occurs in the midst of a violent wave in France. A total of 45,000 police and gendarmes were mobilized last night throughout France to try to restore order and stop the riots and looting that have broken out across the country. Since the riots began on Tuesday there have been 3,118 detainees, of which 1,311 were arrested on the night of Friday to Saturday, the most violent the country has seen so far.
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The Government remains prudent, however, about what may happen in the coming days. President Emmanuel Macron asked his ministers on Sunday to “continue to do everything to restore order and guarantee a return to calm.” The head of state will receive this Monday the presidents of the Senate and the National Assembly and on Tuesday more than 220 mayors of towns that have suffered violent acts during the riots. Macron spoke by phone with Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, whose family home was attacked on the night of Saturday to Sunday, in what was a quantum leap in the riots that are plaguing France.
Appeal of Nahel’s grandmother
Nadia, Nahel’s grandmother, yesterday called for calm. “To people who are breaking things, I say stop. They are using Nahel as an excuse. We don’t want them to destroy storefronts, buses and schools. We want those young people to stay calm,” she said in a statement to BFMTV.
Nahel is dead. My daughter had only one child. She has lost it. She’s over. My daughter no longer has a life,” said Nahel’s grandmother, who showed her “confidence in justice” so that the policeman who shot her grandson is convicted of what she has done.
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