Rioters in France yesterday ram-raided the home of a Paris suburb mayor, set the car alight and launched fireworks at his wife and young children as they fled during a fifth night of nationwide unrest over Tuesday’s police shooting of a teen of North African descent.
Vincent Jeanbrun, 39, the centre-right mayor of the southern suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses, was at the town hall when his house was attacked with his wife Melanie and children asleep inside.
The aggressors drove their vehicle at the suburban house but were halted by a low wall ringing the property’s outdoor terrace, the local public prosecutor said. They then torched their vehicle.
As Jeanbrun’s wife and children, aged 5 and 7, took flight through the back yard, they were targeted with fireworks. Jeanbrun told Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne his wife had had surgery on a broken leg and would face three-month rehabilitation.
“While attempting to shield them and fleeing the attackers, my wife and one of my children were hurt,” the mayor said.
French PM condemned the attack on the mayor’s home and vowed to bring perpetrators to justice.
Rioting diminished Saturday night following the youth’s funeral earlier in the day.
The government deployed about 45,000 police onto the streets to control unrest after the funeral of Nahel, a 17-year-old with Algerian and Moroccan parents, who was shot during a traffic stop on Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
In five nights of protests, rioters have torched cars and looted stores, while also targeting town halls, police stations and schools — buildings that represent the French state. The French interior ministry said 719 people were arrested Saturday night, fewer than the 1,311 the previous night and 875 on Thursday night.
“Forty-five thousand police officers and thousands of firefighters have been mobilized to enforce order. Their action … made for a quieter night,” the ministry said on Twitter.
The biggest flashpoint overnight was in Marseille, where police fired tear gas and fought street battles with youths around the city center late into the night.
In Paris, security forces lined the city’s famous Champs Elysees Avenue after a call on social media to gather there. Shop facades were boarded up to prevent potential damage.
The local prosecutor told reporters that an investigation into attempted murder had been opened. No suspects have been arrested.