British tourists have been warned about travelling in France as the country imposed traffic shutdowns to try and quell nationwide rioting caused by a policeman shooting a teenager dead.
The Foreign Office on Friday updated its travel advice as a response to the violence, saying: “Some local authorities may impose curfews. Locations and timing of riots are unpredictable.
“You should monitor the media, avoid areas where riots are taking place, check the latest advice with operators when travelling and follow the advice of the authorities.”
President Emmanuel Macron was meanwhile facing growing calls to declare a state of emergency following the killing of Nahel Merzouk, 17.
The teenager was at the wheel of a stationary Mercedes AMG car on Tuesday when a traffic officer was filmed saying “I’m going to place a bullet in your head,” and then opening fire.
Mr Merzouk was from a French Algerian background, and protestors say the teenager’s death exemplifies the discrimination that such ethnic minorities suffer.
Florian M., a 38-year-old French policeman who shot Mr Merzouk, is in custody and has been charged with murder.
Mr Macron chaired the French equivalent of a Cobra meeting — the second in two days — on Friday, as he attempted to deal with the national crisis.
Afterwards, he said he was prepared to do “anything possible to restore public order”, including shutting down trains and buses in major cities including Paris overnight.
France’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin meanwhile instructed regional authorities across the whole of the country to cease operating public buses and trams on Friday night from 9pm local time. The French government has deployed 45,000 police officers on Friday evening in a bid to curb the violence.
Resources include special anti-riot units, armoured vehicles and helicopters.
It followed Mr Macron putting an extra 40,000 officers on the streets, including 5,000 in Paris, on Thursday, when there were at least 917 arrests across the country.
Mr Darmanin said the average age of those arrested overnight on Thursday was 17, and some were as young as 13.
Town halls, police cars, and trains were all torched nationwide, while gangs fought running battles with police, who responded with teargas and baton charges.
Twelve buses were put to the torch in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers alone, while an overnight curfew was imposed in the nearby town of Clamart.
While a young man who jumped out of a building when the ground floor of a supermarket was hit by rioting on Thursday has died, according to broadcaster BFM TV, which quoted prosecutors in Rouen, northern France.
Mr Macron said social media was fuelling copycat violence, and that platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok needed to remove “the most sensitive content”.
Mr Macron said: “We sometimes have the feeling that some young people are living in the streets of the video games that have intoxicated them.”
The President also urged parents to keep teenagers at home, rather than let them out looking for trouble.
“It is the parents’ responsibility to keep them at home,” said Mr Macron. “And therefore, it is important for everyone’s peace of mind that parental responsibility can be fully exercised.”
More than two million British people are expected to travel to France over the next two months, as the peak summer holiday season commences.
France is the UK’s second most popular holiday destination after Spain, with July and August the busiest month of the year for tourism.
