Deadly violence raged across France for the fourth day running yesterday with the Police admitting they were at war with those they called savage hordes of vermin.
The rioting said to be the worst in the country in years forced President Emmanuel Macron to call off a scheduled trip to Germany.
The rioters stole a security car and looted the arms contained therein.
More cars and buildings were set ablaze and stores looted on a day the family and friends buried the 17-year-old French-Algerian whose killing by an officer sparked the unrest.
The London Mail quoted the police as saying, “Today the police are in combat because we are at war.”
“Tomorrow we will enter resistance and the government should be aware of this.”
The Interior Ministry said 1,300 arrests had been made as at yesterday.
France’s national football team — including international star Kylian Mbappe, an idol to many young people in the disadvantaged neighbourhoods where the anger is rooted —pleaded for an end to the violence.
“Many of us are from working-class neighbourhoods, we too share this feeling of pain and sadness” over the killing of 17-year-old Nahel, the players said in a statement.
“Violence resolves nothing.
“There are other peaceful and constructive ways to express yourself.”
They said it is time for “mourning, dialogue and reconstruction” instead.
Looters were said to have ransacked dozens of shops and torched 2,000 vehicles since the start of the riots, which have spread to cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Lille.
More than 200 police officers have been injured, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, adding that the average age of those arrested was 17.
Looters broke into a gun shop on Friday night and made off with weapons in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, police said.
Buildings and businesses were also vandalised in the eastern city of Lyon, where a third of the roughly 30 arrests made were for theft, police said.
