France faced riots for the fifth night in a row on Saturday as more than 45,000 police officers were deployed throughout the country, including 7,000 in Paris, to stop the civil unrest.
Thousands of people have been arrested so far after hundreds of cars and buildings have been set on fire and countless stores have been looted following the death of a teenager of African descent.
The BBC reported that the teen, who had “been in trouble before and was known to police,” was “fatally shot in the chest, point-blank, at the wheel of a Mercedes car for driving off during a police traffic check.”
Video of the incident showed one officer leaning over the hood of the car and when the vehicle started moving, it flung the officer to the side of the car.
Approximately 3,000 people have been arrested so far and hundreds of police officers and firefighters have been injured.
The country’s top two police unions — the Alliance Police Nationale and UNSA Police — said in a statement: “Today police officers are at the front line because we are at war.”
“Faced with these savage hordes, it’s no longer enough to call for calm, it must be imposed,” they added. “Now is not the time for industrial action but for fighting against these ‘vermin.'”
Some of the videos of the violence that has allegedly occurred from this latest round of riots in France include:
The riots have gotten so bad that French President Emmanuel Macron had to cancel “a long-planned state visit to Germany to deal with the worsening turmoil,” Politico Europe reported.
“Given the internal situation, the president has indicated that he wishes to be able to stay in France for the next few days,” a statement from France said. “The two presidents therefore agreed to postpone the visit to Germany to a later date.”
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