Moment flagship Nike store in central Paris is ransacked by looters as wave of rioting sweeps France

30 June 2023, 10:19

A flagship Nike store in central Paris has been ransacked by looters as riots continue to sweep through France.

Footage shared online showed crowds surrounding the Nike store as they tried to smash their way into the sportswear shop in central Paris.

People could be seen kicking and punching the store windows before breaking out into cheers when they successfully got through.

Violent clashes between police and protesters began after the killing of a 17-year-old delivery driver on Tuesday.

The French policeman who shot the teen has since apologised and been charged with homicide, remaining in custody.

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Thursday evening marked the third night of violence in a row, with looting spreading from Paris to across the country, including in Lille in the north and Marseille in the south.

Vehicles were set on fire in Toulouse and a tram was torched in a suburb of Lyon.

Schools, town halls and police stations have been targeted by people setting fires, and police used tear gas, water cannons and dispersion grenades against rioters, a national police spokesperson.

More than 600 people were arrested overnight after 40,000 officers were deployed to deal with the growing unrest. Some 249 police officers and gendarmes were injured.

But French President Emmanuel Macron has been criticised after he was pictured at an Elton John concert on Wednesday night.

Thierry Mariani, an MEP for National Rally, said: "While France was on fire, Macron was not at the side of his minister of the interior or the police but he preferred to applaud Elton John."

Macron planned to leave an EU summit in Brussels, where France plays a major role in European policymaking, to return to Paris and hold an emergency security meeting on Friday.

Meanwhile, interior minister Gerald Darmanin on Friday denounced what he called a night of "rare violence".

His office described the arrests as a sharp increase on previous operations as part of an overall government efforts to be "extremely firm" with rioters.

The government has stopped short of declaring a state of emergency - a step taken to stop the weeks of rioting that followed the accidental death of two boys fleeing police in 2005.