Funeral held for French teen after more than 1,300 detained amid violent protests
Jul 01, 2023
Paris [France], July 1 : The funeral of a French teen, whose shooting by police provoked violent protests across the nation, was held today after more than 1300 people were detained overnight on Saturday, CNN reported.
The service was held at a mosque in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, on Saturday afternoon local time. The 17-year-old was killed there.
According to CNN's staff on the ground, the funeral was quiet and solemn, with attendees waiting in silence as his casket left the mosque. After the service, it was anticipated that the body would be taken for burial right after.
To keep everything in order, there was a significant security presence in the area around the mosque.
Mounia, the mother of the teenager who was shot dead, told France 5 on Friday that she alone held the cop who shot her son, Nahel Merzouk, accountable for his demise.
However, the murder has led to widespread damaging unrest and inquiries into whether race played a role in his passing. Despite a ban on all "large-scale events" throughout the nation declared the day before, protests persisted into early Saturday morning, with riots breaking out in numerous locations of France.
Seventy-nine police and gendarmes were injured over Friday night and there had been 58 attacks on police and gendarme stations.
There was an explosion in the Old Port of Marseille on Friday evening, according to BFMTV, but no casualties had been reported.
It also shared a video showing damage to the Alcazar library in Marseille which it said had been vandalized during the night.
These developments take place after the death of the teenager, 17, identified as Nal after being stopped for a traffic violation in the Paris suburb town of Nanterre on Tuesday.
The officer who is accused of shooting him was taken to jail.
