Insaf Abbas
Reporting from L’Hay-les-Roses

Walking through the southern Parisian suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses, it’s hard to imagine that an attack took place here just early this morning.

The house of mayor Vincent Jeanbrun is situated on a quiet, tree-lined street. If not for the police car, cordon and crowd of journalists gathered outside, it would seem like any other normal Sunday.

I meet Sonia, who lives close to Jeanbrun’s house. I ask her how she and her neighbours are feeling about the attack.

“We think that what has been done and what the young people do is not good at all. They should not do this.

“But at the same time, the government and mayors should be concerned about these young people that don’t know what to do during the day.

“They should be able to play football and have hobbies. Otherwise they will just be violent.”

She also believes that the French youth need to be more involved in politics.

“They should vote instead of being violent. They should vote for the people they would like to have in power.”

Image source, Reuters

After the ram-raid on the mayor's house in the L'Hay-les-Roses suburb of Paris, authorities are deploying 7,000 extra police officers in the capital and its inner suburbs tonight.

Image source, Getty Images

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says that he is watching the riots in France "with concern."

His comments came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron postponed his planned state visit to Germany.

"France is a friendly neighbouring country”, he told German broadcaster ARD.

"That is why we are of course watching with concern, and I very much hope, and I am certainly convinced, that the French president will find ways to ensure that this situation improves quickly."

Macron's visit to Germany was originally planned for today until Tuesday.

Davide Ghiglione
Reporting from Lille

Although tensions have cooled over the last 24 hours as authorities try to contain the fallout from the killing, the events have revived the debate about social inequality and racism in France.

Amar, a 54-year-old local resident of Roubaix, a suburb of Lille, looks at an office building which was set on fire and destroyed by protesters, and says France feels like a “powder keg.”

“All it needs is a flame to set it all on fire. Because all the ingredients are here: unemployment, housing problems, social issues. With all this, it only takes a spark to set everything on fire”, he says.

We are hearing more from Nadia, Nahel's grandmother, who is speaking to French network BFM TV in Nanterre.

She says that she "resents" the men who stopped and killed her grandson, but that doesn't mean that she hates all other police officers.

"Fortunately, they are there," she says, emphasising that she "believes in justice".

There is more from BFMTV's interview with Nahel's grandmother, Nadia.

"Nahel is dead, he's dead," she says. "My daughter is lost... She doesn't have a life any more."

As she repeats her calls for calm and an end to the rioting, she adds: "Don't destroy the schools, don't destroy the buses. They are other mothers who take these buses."

She earlier said that the rioters were using Nahel's death as an excuse.

Nahel M's grandmother has called for calm after a fifth night of unrest across France after her 17-year-old grandson was killed by the police.

"We don't want them to destroy shops, busses and schools," Nadia told BFM TV.

“They are using Nahel as an excuse", she says. "We want things to calm down”.

"My heart is in pain," she said about the money donated for the police officer who got arrested after shooting Nahel dead on Tuesday.

But she says she has confidence that the police officer will be punished like everyone else.

Image source, Reuters

On her visit to L'Hay-les-Roses to show support for mayor Vincent Jeanbrun, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the attack on his home last night was “particularly shocking”.

“We will let no violence go unpunished," she said, urging that those responsible be sanctioned with the "utmost severity".

A press statement being circulated on social media which allegedly announced restrictions on the internet in certain areas is fake, French police say.

No such decision has been taken, police said on Twitter, pleading for people not to distribute information that does not come from a trusted source.

Image source, French Police

Misleading riot image is actually from French filmpublished at 13:49 British Summer Time 2 July 2023

13:49 BST 2 July 2023

A striking image showing a group of young men driving a French police van, with one hanging out of the window brandishing a gun, has been shared on Twitter with the words "France, photo of the day".

Image source, Twitter

The tweet, posted early this morning, has had over 1.7m views but it's misleading - it's not from the current riots in France but is actually a still from a film.

BBC Verify examined the image and, searching for previous versions of it on the internet, found it was from the French film, Athena - a fictional account of rioting in a city suburb - made in 2022.

Image source, YouTube

The people in the van and the blue motorcycle are exactly the same.

The person who posted the tweet later clarified that the image was meant to be of an “illustrative” nature, but not before it had been retweeted thousands of times.

French news channel BFM TV is reporting that a curfew for people under the age of 16 is being enforced in Darnétal near Rouen.

It will apply to anyone under 16 not “accompanied by a parent or legal representative” between 21:00 and 06:00 until 31 July.

Image source, Getty Images

The Association of Mayors of France (AMF) has called on the citizens and mayors of France to gather in front of the townhalls around the country on Monday to show support to L'Hay-les-Roses mayor Vicent Jeanbrun, whose house was attacked last night.

“The AMF has decided to call on elected officials and the population to take action; we are not giving up...And we continue our work on a daily basis so that order returns" said AMF president, David Lisnard.

Image source, AFP

After Vicent Jeanbrun’s house was attacked last night, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has been to L'Hay-les-Roses - where he is mayor of - to see him.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin joined Borne in the Paris suburb.

A statement from Borne’s office said she was going there to express her support and “reaffirm her determination to put an end to this unacceptable violence”.

Hugh Schofield
Reporting from Paris

The most shocking event of Saturday night was when attackers set fire to a car and sent it towards the house of the mayor of the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-roses.

At 01:30 he was at the townhall but his wife and two young children were at home. Fleeing, his wife broke her leg and was taken to hospital.

The burning car hit a low wall and failed to set fire to the house, but the prosecutor said that was the intention.

Overall Saturday was a quieter night than previous ones, especially in the Paris suburbs – but the interior ministry still counted more than 570 vehicles and 74 buildings set on fire across the country.

The hope is that the wave of riots has peaked and will now start to peter out, though only the coming days and nights will show if that is indeed the case.

After Nahel's funeral yesterday, there was more unrest.

A mayor's house was attacked in a suburb of Paris overnight and there is an increased security presence on Sunday morning.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

Women protesting in Paris say that they do not feel safe around police after the killing of 17-year-old Nahel in one of the capital’s suburbs.

"It shouldn't be this way," one says.

.

Image source, EPA

President Emmanuel Macron has a meeting of key members of his government at 19:30 (17:30 GMT) on Sunday to discuss the protests.

A statement by the president's office said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti would take part.

A human rights group in France, the League of Human Rights, has reiterated its call for the abrogation of the law which allows French police to shoot against drivers who disobey orders to stop.

The 2017 law has been blamed for the killing of Nahel M during a police traffic stop on Tuesday.

It was the third such death this year and followed a record 13 deaths last year. Most of those killed were of black and Arab origin.

Why are French police allowed to use guns in this way?

Read our explainer here.

More now from the prosecutors - the car used in the attack on the home of the Hay-les-Roses mayor was meant to burn the house, they say.

But the vehicle was stopped by a low wall, said prosecutor Stéphane Hardouin.

Only the entrance gate was hit as well as the family car, he added.

Police have found fuel in a bottle of Coca-Cola, the prosecutor told a short news conference.