PARIS, June 30. /TASS/. An aggressive crowd of protestors swept through stores on Rue de Rivole, a major shopping street in the heart of Paris, BFM television reported on Friday.

According to the report, around 100 people are smashing shop windows to steal goods, while no police officers are to be seen in the area.

Earlier, leading French newspaper Le Figaro said several stores were looted at a shopping mall in the city’s Les Halles district; 14 people were detained.

The overall number of people detained in France late on Thursday and early on Friday has risen to 255.

Following an incident where a 17-year old driving a Mercedes was killed by a policeman, riots broke out in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, which later spread to other municipalities and major cities such as Toulouse and Lyon. On the night of June 28 alone, several dozen police cars were burned, police stations and administrative buildings were set ablaze, and educational institutions were damaged.

In the early hours of Friday, the Interior Ministry deployed over 40,000 police officers across the country to quell the ongoing unrest. In some French cities, streets are being patrolled by special police units, supported by armored vehicles and helicopters.