Thousands of people gather in Nanterre in a tense day of protests over the shooting death of a teenager

At least 15 detained in Nanterre

Thousands of people have gathered this Thursday in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, to protest the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy at the hands of an agent in the framework of a tense day in which the French government has announced the deployment of 40,000 police and gendarmes to contain the violence in France.

The so-called 'White March', called by the young man's mother, has paraded peacefully through the streets of Nanterre until it ended up in court, where shortly before the city prosecutor, Pascal Prache, determined that the agent involved in the case must remain in pretrial detention as a suspect in a crime of homicide.

The young man's mother, mounted in a white truck, has chanted along with the other protesters slogans against French justice and in favor of her son, Nahel. Politicians such as Éric Coquerel, from La Francia Insumisa, or the general secretary of the French Green Party, Marine Tondelier, attended the march.

Although the concentration has proceeded normally, a group of demonstrators have launched projectiles at the Police in Nelson Mandela Square, where several vehicles have been burned and the agents have had to disperse the crowd with batons.

In the midst of the tensions, the French riot police have fired tear gas in an attempt to control several hooded men who have broken the windows of a local and have started a fire inside, according to the newspaper 'Le Parisien'.

Late in the afternoon, the National Gendarmerie, the elite unit of the French National Police and the Investigation Brigade have moved a contingent to Nanterre in the context of the violence, which has so far resulted in 15 arrests.

Several demonstrators have looted a Crédit Mutuel bank, while many others have raised the pavement to throw cobblestones at the Police. Clashes have also taken place in the Pablo Piccaso neighborhood, where the crowd has entrenched themselves with Molotov cocktails in a garden area in the André Malraux park.

On the other hand, a small group of protesters has vandalized a monument in the city built to honor the victims of deportation to Nazi concentration camps, painting slogans on its walls in favor of the dead teenager, the newspaper 'Le Figaro' reported. .

Faced with the escalation of violence, many municipalities have imposed curfews, such as Clamart, Neuilly-sur-Marne and Savigny-le-Temple. The American band Maroon 5 plans to play this Thursday night in Nanterre and for the moment has not canceled the concert.

The protests have erupted after a 17-year-old boy was shot in the chest at a police checkpoint, after his vehicle was intercepted. After the death of the teenager, the Police denounced an attempted hit-and-run, although a video has denied this version.