The death of 17-year-old Nahel, shot by police in Nanterre, a northwestern Paris suburb, has sparked nationwide outrage and protests in France. On the third night of unrest, protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police who responded with tear gas and water cannons. More than 600 people were arrested and at least 200 police officers were injured as the government struggled to restore order. Armoured police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze, while protesters lit a fire at the city hall in Clichy-sous-Bois, set a bus depot ablaze in Aubervilliers, and hurled firecrackers at security forces in several Paris neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, some 40,000 police officers were deployed across the nation, 667 people were detained, and around 200 police officers were injured.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin denounced what he called a night of “rare violence,” while President Emmanuel Macron cut an EU summit short in Brussels to return to Paris and hold an emergency security meeting. The police officer accused of pulling the trigger on Tuesday was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide, and his lawyer maintained that “he didn't want to kill.” The shooting has stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, prompting calls from anti-racism activists for more accountability. Protests have extended as far as Brussels, where several fires were brought under control.

The death of Nahel, whose family has roots in Algeria, and the 2005 deaths of two boys fleeing police, led to questions about France's commitment to a doctrine of colorblind universalism and widespread discrimination and racism. The use of firearms by police is relatively rare in France, but 13 people were fatally shot by police last year and three this year, including Nahel.

As tensions rose in places across France, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a police office in Pau, vehicles were set on fire in Toulouse, and a tramway train was torched in a suburb of Lyon. Bus and tram services in the Paris area shut as a precaution and some towns imposed precautionary overnight curfews. The death of Nahel has prompted calls for justice and accountability, with his mother Mounia M. demanding that “a police officer cannot take his gun and fire at our children".