Paris Olympics pool engulfed in flames on third night of violent protests. Riots also in Belgium.

The site of a swimming pool being constructed for the Paris Olympics was engulfed in flames on Thursday evening after a third night of protests over the deadly police shooting of a teenager.

The unrest overnight followed a march on Thursday in memory of the 17-year-old, named as Nahel M, whose death has revived long-standing grievances about policing and racial profiling in France’s low-income and multi-ethnic suburbs.

Despite the massive security deployment, violence and damage were reported in multiple areas.

Police sources said that rather than battles between protesters and police, the night was marked by pillaging of shops, reportedly including the flagship branches of Nike and Zara in Paris. Public buildings were also targeted, with a police station in the Pyrenees city of Pau hit with a Molotov cocktail, according to regional authorities, and an elementary school and a district office set on fire in Lille.

As part of measures to restore calm, Paris bus and tram services were halted after 9pm on Thursday, the region’s president said. But the measures and heightened security appeared to do little to deter unrest on Thursday night.

In the city centre of Marseille, a library was vandalised, (Vandalised? From the look of the video accompanying this the library was burnt out) according to local officials . . . Multiple public buildings were also targeted in Seine-Saint-Denis, in the Paris metro area . . . cars were set alight in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre, where the teenager lived and was killed. In Roubaix, in northern France, a fire destroyed the office of the TESSI company (left) and several cars were set on fire.

Meanwhile the riots have spread into Belgium. The Brussels Times

A total of 64 people were arrested in the incidents that took place in Brussels on Thursday evening in protest over the shooting of a 17-year-old by a police officer in France.

During the day, calls circulated on social media to gather in Brussels and protest in response to the death of 17-year-old Nahel . . .In Brussels, young people gathered in several municipalities on Thursday night, resulting in a cat-and-mouse game with the security forces, who had mobilised in large numbers to quell any riots.

Finally, riots took place in and around the Anneessens neighbourhood, where there was a massive police presence, and at the nearby Midi (South) Station. Police swiftly activated the highest level of ground response, meaning the chief of police took charge of coordinating the operation. Lemonnier Avenue was briefly barricaded with scooters and cardboard but with the help of local residents was quickly cleared. Fires were set, including on rue des Artsesia in Brussels and at Place de la Constitution in Saint-Gilles.

This is obviously more than local concern at the action of a single officer, who is in custody and under formal investigation for voluntary homicide.  This is large scale and organised; the death of one boy of North African descent is merely a convenient excuse. It may well spread.  

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