A brutal car-ramming attack on a mayor’s home near Paris on Sunday sparked unanimous outrage across the political class after another night of unrest sparked by the police killing of a young North African man. The shock caused by the aggression against the mayor of this quiet town of 30,000 inhabitants has forced a decline in the level of violence observed in many cities in France to take a back seat, reports AFP.

“We will not let anything pass, we will be with the mayors,” promised the head of the French government, Elizabeth Bourne, who came to support the mayor in her city on Sunday. The government will not “allow any violence to go unanswered” and sanctions will be applied “with the utmost severity,” she added.

In the context of increasing attacks on political representatives, the president of the Association of Mayors of France, David Lisnard, called on elected officials and citizens to gather at noon on Monday in front of city halls across the country. He told AFP that “150 town halls or municipal buildings have been attacked since Tuesday, for the first time in the country’s history.”

The head of state, Emmanuel Macron, who did not immediately react to the attack, is due to meet with several members of the government on Sunday evening, from 19:30 (20:30 in Romania), at the Elysée Palace, to establish a “situational balance”.

According to the press, both the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Internal Affairs and Justice will attend a meeting at the Elysée Palace in the context of the violence in recent days in France.

“Attack on unconditional cowardice”

The mayor’s house in L’Isle-les-Rose, a small town near Paris, was attacked with a battering ram filled with incendiary materials overnight from Saturday to Sunday, the fifth night of violence in France.

Around 1:30 a.m., while Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun (Republican Party, right) was at the Hotel de Ville in L’Haile-les-Rose, rioters “launched a battering ram at his residence before starting a fire,” the prefecture said in a statement on Twitter.

The mayor’s wife and one of his two children “were injured,” the communique added, condemning “an assassination attempt due to unqualified cowardice.”

In turn, the mayor said that his residence was attacked while his wife and two children were sleeping. It was during the attempt to protect the family and escape from the aggressors that his wife and one of the children were injured.

His wife “was wounded in the knee and is now hospitalized, and one of the children suffered minor injuries,” sources close to the mayor told AFP. “Both children are very, very shocked,” they added.

According to the same source, the attackers set fire to the ram’s car as well as the car of the mayor’s family before they were chased away by police and firefighters “who intervened very quickly”.

Criminal proceedings have been opened for attempted murder, a court source said.

“Stop the destruction!” – Grandmother Nakhel’s address to the demonstrators

Nadia, the grandmother of 17-year-old Nachel M, killed by police in Nanterre on Tuesday, wants the city’s violence to end. “Stop the destruction,” a woman calls to the French who have revolted.

“I say to those who destroy everything: stop. Don’t destroy shop windows, don’t destroy schools, don’t destroy buses. Stop, there are mothers who take the bus, there are mothers who go outside,” said Nadya, Nahel’s grandmother, in an interview with BFMTV.

“We want these young people to calm down. Nachel is dead. My daughter had only one child, she lost, everything is gone, my daughter has nothing to live for. And they made me “lose” my daughter and grandson,” she continued.

Nachel was killed last Tuesday near Nanterre-Préfecture RER station during a police check. The policeman opened fire on the boy from a short distance, mortally wounding him in the chest. He motivated his act by the boy’s refusal to obey, but the video contradicted his version and provoked riots in the country.

Since Tuesday, scores of young people living in working-class neighborhoods across the country have been venting their anger at the police and the state every night, confronting law enforcement and vandalizing public buildings and shops.

“My heart hurts. The policeman took my nephew away. This person has to pay like everyone else. They will also punish those who break the law and beat police officers. I believe in justice. I believe in justice,” she said.

The 38-year-old police officer who fired the fatal shot was charged with involuntary manslaughter and jailed Thursday.

Casualty: 2,000 cars were set on fire and 700 shops were vandalized

Riots in France were less intense Saturday night as tens of thousands of police were deployed in cities across the country following the funeral of teenager Nahel M., whose police shooting sparked nationwide riots. According to AFP, 719 people were arrested today.

President Emmanuel Macron postponed a state visit to Germany that was due to start on Sunday to deal with the worst crisis for his leadership since the “yellow vest” protests that paralyzed much of France in late 2018.

Around 45,000 police were on the streets, with elite special forces, armored vehicles and helicopters deployed to reinforce the country’s three biggest cities, Paris, Lyon and Marseille.

Since the start of the riots, rioters have set fire to 2,000 cars. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Saturday that more than 200 police officers had been injured, adding that the average age of those arrested was 17.

More than 700 shops, supermarkets, restaurants and bank branches have been “looted, looted and sometimes even set on fire since Tuesday,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.

Violent clashes in Marseille

As of 01:45 local time on Sunday morning, the situation was calmer than the previous four nights, although there was some tension in central Paris and isolated clashes in the Mediterranean cities of Marseille, Nice and the eastern city of Strasbourg.

The situation was most tense in Marseille, where police used tear gas and fought street battles with rebellious youth in the city center until late at night.

In Paris, police have stepped up security on the iconic Champs-Élysées after calls on social media to hold a rally there.

The street, usually packed with tourists, was cordoned off by security forces conducting random checks. The windows were boarded up to prevent possible damage and looting.

Local authorities across the country announced bans on demonstrations, ordered public transport to stop in the evening, and some imposed curfews.

The unrest, which has damaged France’s global image just a year before the Olympics, will increase political pressure on Macron.

He has already faced months of anger and at times violent demonstrations across the country after introducing a major overhaul of the pension system.

Nachel was buried on Saturday

Nachel, 17, of Algerian and Moroccan parents, was shot dead by a police officer during traffic control in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday.

For the funeral, several hundred people lined up to enter the great mosque in Nanterre. Volunteers in yellow vests stood guard, and several dozen passers-by watched from the other side of the street.

Marie, 60, told Reuters she had lived in Nanterre for 50 years and had always had problems with the police.

“It is absolutely necessary to stop it. The authorities are completely unaware of our reality,” she said.

The teenager’s shooting reignited old criticisms of police violence and racism in poor and racially mixed inner-city communities.

Nachel was known to police for previously failing to obey stops and illegally driving a rental car, Nanterra prosecutors said Thursday.