As the ongoing protests in France entered its sixth day, Police detained at least 72 people last night as the riots sparked by the police shooting of a teenager in a Paris suburb, BFMTV reported on Tuesday.
The night from Monday to Tuesday was much less agitated than the previous ones, with 72 arrests in France, including 24 in Paris and the inner suburbs, against 157 the day before in total, the Ministry of the Interior told BFMTV.
Since the fatal shooting of the teenager and the riots started on June 27, nearly 5,900 vehicles have been set on fire, more than 12,200 garbage can fires have been recorded, nearly 1,100 buildings have been burned or damaged and nearly 270 attacks on police stations or gendarmeries have been identified.
This is the second night in a row that the situation has calmed down.
Unrest broke out in France after a 17-year-old teenager was shot dead on June 27 after failing to comply with police orders.
The police officer who fired his gun at the ethnic Algerian teenager has been taken into custody. According to the Interior Ministry, 719 rioters were detained in France on the night of July 2.
On Monday, hundreds of people marched in support of a French mayor whose house was attacked by a burning car, as the country entered the second week of violent protests and riots, CNN reported
A large crowd in Paris' L'Hay-les-Roses showed solidarity with Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun whose house was rammed by the vehicle early on Sunday morning.
Jeanbrun's address was well known in the community before the attack, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported. The incident injured his wife and one of his children, Jeanbrun said earlier, calling it an assassination attempt.
During the march, locals and officials held up a banner reading "Together for the republic!" Jeanbrun, dressed in the sash of the French Tricolor, told supporters: "I have only one word: thank you.
"Democracy was attacked," he said. "More than ever, our republic and its servants are threatened and attacked," he added, as per CNN.
The mayor in a previous statement on Sunday, said that while he was at city hall, "individuals rammed their car upon my residence before setting fire to it to burn my house, inside which my wife and my two young children slept."
"While trying to protect the children and escape the attackers, my wife and one of my children were injured," the mayor said, adding that he had "no words strong enough to describe his emotion towards the horror of this night." (ANI)
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