PARIS, August 21. /ITAR-TASS/. The Council of Europe on Thursday expressed concern about the excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators in the American city of Ferguson, Missouri, which has been gripped by mass protests after the killing of a black teenager by police a week ago.

“I am particularly concerned by the reported use of excessive force by the police against peaceful protesters and their arrest, including journalists covering the events, as this undermines the full exercise of human rights, starting with the rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression,” the Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland said.

He expressed hope that the American authorities would conduct “a proper investigation” into the killing.

“When the USA became an observer State to the Council of Europe, it accepted to uphold the principles and values of our Organization,” the secretary-general said.

Mass riots in Ferguson, began after a police officer had fatally shot an 18-year-old Afro American on August 9. Local residents accused police of disproportionate use of force and took to the streets of the city, with mass protests occasionally developing into riots. Police used tear gas, and the National Guard was brought into the city.

On August 19, a 23-year-old Afro-American was shot and killed in the Ferguson area after reportedly threatening a law enforcer with a knife. The young man died from the wounds at the scene of the incident.