PARIS, June 28. /TASS/. At least 24 policemen were injured in riots outside the French capital last night, Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez told CNEWS television on Wednesday.
According to the law enforcement official, 350 police and gendarmerie officers were marshalled to quell the protests, mostly in Nanterre, located 11 km northwest of Paris. The protesters threw fireworks, stones and bottles at the police, and set garbage bins and cars on fire. In the municipality of Mantes-la-Jolie, Yvelines Department, the mayor’s office in the Val Fourre neighborhood was torched.
Protests erupted in Nanterre on Tuesday evening and engulfed other Paris suburbs after a 17-year-old driver died on the spot from a gunshot wound after police opened fire in response to the youth’s refusal to comply with their instructions.
Although the riots subsided at around 3:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. Moscow time) on Wednesday, police are continuing to patrol streets in Nanterre to prevent mob violence against members of the public, Nunez said.
Meanwhile, 31 people have been detained, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters at a briefing, where he condemned the protests. Darmanin said he had made the decision to deploy 2,000 policemen and gendarmes to conduct security measures within the Paris city limits as well as in adjacent suburbs.