A gunman opened up on police and a weapons shop was looted during escalating riots across France caused by the killing of a teenager in Paris.
As friends and family today attended the funeral of Nahel Merzouk, 17, details of the worsening civil unrest were released.
An officer in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, described how ‘gunfire started’ as a police patrol entered a council estate where tower blocks had been set alight in the early hours of this morning.
"We were forced to flee - it was a matter of life and death," he said.
"Three officers suffered minor wounds, but it could have been far worse.
"We were forced to shoot back with a tear gas grenade launcher, at the risk of tearing a rioter’s head off,’ added the policeman, who asked not to be identified by name.
Officers suffered wounds to the legs and groin, prompting a local police spokesman to say: "We have crossed a red line. We've not seen this kind of thing before here, and it's of deep concern."
There were more than 1,300 arrests across France overnight between Friday and Saturday, when businesses looted included a gun shop in Marseille.
"A mob ransacked the shop and got away with around eight hunting rifles," said a police spokesman in the southern city.
Mr Merouk’s funeral took place on Saturday in the north-west Paris suburb of Nanterre, where he was killed last Tuesday, as he sat at the wheel of a Mercedes.
The officer responsible – identified as 38-year-old Florian M., 38 – remains on remand having been charged with murder.
Among those calling for calm on Saturday was France and Paris St Germain football star Kylian Mbappé, who said ‘the violence must end’.
The killing has sparked four consecutive nights of nationwide anarchy, and the UK Foreign Office has warned British tourists about the dangers of travelling in France.
Mr Merouk’s Islamic funeral ceremony included mourners viewing his open coffin before it was taken to a mosque and then on to a cemetery for burial.
Abdelmadjid Benamara, the family lawyer, said: "Saturday, July 1 is a day of meditation for Nahel's family."
It came as a leaked police intelligence report described officers as being ‘at war with savage hordes of vermin’.
Two police unions threatened a revolt unless Emmanuel Macron’s government restored order.
"Today the police are in combat because we are at war," says the report. "Tomorrow we will enter resistance and the government should be aware of."
It comes as youths were seen breaking into mulitiple shops and other businesses over the past two days.
A Carrefour supermarket in the Paris suburb of Drancy was among those pillaged.
The cities of Lyon, Grenoble and Marseille were also badly hit, as looters got away with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of goods.
Police armoured cars were meanwhile seen in numerous trouble spots.
Buses and train services were shut down overnight, while some mayors imposed a curfew.
The French government announced this weekend that all major public gatherings that could ‘pose a risk to public order’, including rock concerts and sports events, would be banned.
An extra 45,000 police have been deployed across the country, including multiple armed paramilitary units.
Mr Merzouk lived with his mother, Mounia, on a council estate in Nanterre.
Her lawyers have accused the policeman responsible for the death of her son of ‘cold blooded murder’.
Mr Merzouk was from a French Algerian background, and protestors say the teenager’s death exemplifies the discrimination that such ethnic minorities suffer.
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’.
