THE grandmother of Nahel Merzouk, the teenager shot dead by police during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb, said Sunday she wanted the nationwide rioting triggered by his killing to end, as France braced for a potential sixth night of unrest. Some 45,000 police were deployed again Sunday night, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, to deter rioters who have torched cars, looted stores and targeted town halls and police stations — including the home of the mayor of a Paris suburb, which was attacked while his wife and children were asleep inside.

President Emmanuel Macron postponed a state visit to Germany to deal with the crisis. He was due to meet with leaders of parliament Monday and with more than 220 mayors of towns and cities that have been affected by the riots.

The interior ministry reported 719 arrests following Saturday’s funeral for Merzouk in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, down from 1,311 Friday night and 875 Thursday night.

But officials cautioned it was too early to say the unrest was over.

“There was evidently less damage but we will remain mobilized in the coming days. We are very focused; nobody is claiming victory,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said.

Macron has urged parents to take responsibility for their children. The justice ministry has said 30% of those arrested have been minors, while Darmanin said the average age of those arrested was 17.

Time to stop violence

Merzouk’s grandmother, identified as Nadia by French media, said the rioters were using the 17-year-old’s death last Tuesday as an excuse to cause havoc and that the family wanted calm.

She said that while she resented the officers responsible for her grandson’s death, she did not hate the police.

“Stop rioting, stop destroying,” the grandmother told BFMTV. “I say this to those who are rioting: Do not smash windows, attack schools and buses. Stop. It’s mothers who take those buses.” The rioters, mostly minors, were using Merzouk as an excuse, she said. “We want things to calm down.”

Asked about a crowdfunding campaign that had received pledges of more than 670,000 euros (US$731,000) for the police officer charged with voluntary homicide over the shooting, Nadia said: “My heart aches.”

The former spokesman for Éric Zemmour, a far-right French presidential candidate, also set up a fund to support the family of the police officer, which has raised over 1 million euros.

The riots amount to the worst crisis for Macron since the “Yellow Vest” protests gripped much of France in late 2018.

In mid-April, Macron gave himself 100 days to bring reconciliation and unity to a divided country after rolling strikes and sometimes-violent protests over his raising of the retirement age, which he had promised in his election campaign.

Instead, the teenager’s death has fed longstanding complaints of discrimination, police violence and systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies — denied by authorities — from rights groups and within the low-income, racially mixed suburbs that ring major French cities.

The officer involved has acknowledged firing a lethal shot, the state prosecutor says, telling investigators he wanted to prevent a dangerous police chase. His lawyer Laurent-Franck Lienard has said he did not intend to kill the teenager.

A blow to France’s image

The biggest overnight flashpoint was Marseille, where police fired teargas and fought street battles with youths around the city center late into the night. There was also unrest in Paris, in the Riviera city of Nice and in Strasbourg in the east.

The unrest delivers a blow to France’s image a year before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

China, along with some Western nations, has warned its citizens to be vigilant due to the unrest, which could pose a significant challenge for France in the peak summer tourism season.

China’s consulate lodged a formal complaint after a bus carrying a Chinese tour group had its windows smashed in on Thursday, leading to minor injuries.

In Paris, shop facades on the popular Avenue des Champs-Elysees were boarded up overnight, and there were sporadic clashes elsewhere. Police said six public buildings were damaged and five officers wounded.

In the Paris region, the home of the conservative mayor of L’Hay-les-Roses, Vincent Jeanbrun, was rammed with a vehicle, and his wife and children were attacked with fireworks as they escaped.

French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne visited the area Sunday with the conservative Paris region president, Valerie Pecresse, who blamed the violence on small, well-trained groups. “The Republic will not yield, and we will fight back,” she said.

The far-right Rassemblement National party of Marine Le Pen, Macron’s main challenger in last year’s presidential vote, has doubled down in its portrayal of Macron as weak on immigration.(SD-Agencies)