More than 700 shops in France were destroyed in the violence that broke out in the cities on Tuesday night, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Saturday, News.ro reported.

Violent new protests in France after police shot dead a 17-year-old boyPhoto: Christophe Ena / AP / Profimedia

At a press conference, the minister said 200 retail outlets, 250 tobacco kiosks and 250 bank branches had been attacked, looted and, in some cases, burned to the ground, as well as a number of large clothing and sporting goods stores, as well as fast food outlets.

“As you can see, this concerns the whole country, all companies and all business,” the minister said, adding that it is still too early to determine the amount of losses.

Bruno Le Maire added that the primary response was to ensure the protection of people and property and to “restore order as quickly as possible”.

He also proposed a series of measures to help traders, including asking insurers to speed up claims payments and lower deductibles, asking banks to be more flexible in making payments, possibly delaying social security and tax payments and extending for one week the cuts that had already begun just a few days ago.

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More than 1,300 people were arrested on Friday night in “less intense” urban violence, four days after the death of young Nakhel, who was killed by a police officer on Tuesday, the interior ministry said, as quoted by AFP.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 1,311 people were arrested in France on Friday night. This figure is a sharp increase from the previous night, when 875 people were arrested.

“79 policemen and gendarmes were injured,” the ministry added in a still preliminary report.

A total of 1,350 vehicles were set on fire, 234 buildings were burned or damaged, and 2,560 fires were reported on public roads, the same source said.

The ministry also recorded 31 attacks on police stations, 16 on municipal police stations and 11 on gendarmerie barracks.

Lyon and Marseille were the two cities worst hit by the violence, the police source added.

  • Read also Five things you need to know about violence in France