France riots: 45,000 police, armoured vehicles deployed to quell unrest

France was reeling on Saturday from a fourth night of rioting as the family of Nahel M, whose shooting by a police officer sparked the unrest, prepared for the teenager's funeral in the Paris suburb where he died.

The government deployed 45,000 police and several armoured vehicles overnight to tackle the worst crisis of President Emmanuel Macron's leadership since the "Yellow Vest" protests which brought France to a standstill in late 2018.

France's interior ministry said that 1,311 people had been arrested, compared with 875 the previous night, in violence which it said on Twitter was "lower in intensity".

Nahel, a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was shot during a traffic stop on Tuesday in the French capital's Nanterre suburb, where bus traffic was still halted and the area quiet on a damp Saturday morning after more rioting overnight.

A group of around 30 young men stood guard at the entrance to the funeral parlour in Nanterre, asking people not to take pictures, a Reuters witness said, adding that there was no sign of any police as mourners gathered at a nearby mosque.

"We aren't part of the family and didn't know Nahel but we were very moved by what has happened in our town. So we wanted to express our condolences," one man among the group, who declined to give his name, told Reuters.

"We belong to the same community of faith," a woman added.

Another Reuters witness said roads to the cemetery would be shut off while Nahel's funeral took place.

The shooting of the teenager, caught on video, has reignited longstanding complaints by poor and racially mixed urban communities of police violence and racism. Macron had denied there is systemic racism inside French law enforcement agencies.

Buildings and vehicles have been torched and stores looted in the unrest, which has spread nationwide, including to cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Lille.

More than 200 police officers have been injured and hundreds of rioters and have been arrested, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, adding their average age was 17.

Friday night's arrests included 80 people in Marseille, which is home to many people of North African descent.

Social media images showed an explosion rocking the old port area of the southern city, but authorities said they did not believe there were any casualties.

Rioters in France's second-largest city had looted a gun store and stole hunting rifles but no ammunition, police said.

Marseille Mayor Benoit Payan called on the government to send extra troops to tackle "pillaging and violence" in the city, where three police officers were slightly wounded early on Saturday. A police helicopter flew overhead.

In Lyon, France's third-largest city, the police deployed armoured personnel carriers and a helicopter, while in Paris, police cleared protesters from the Place de la Concorde square on Friday night.

Darmanin had asked local authorities to halt buses and trams, while Macron urged parents to keep children at home.

"Quite simply, we're not ruling out any hypothesis and we'll see after tonight what the President of the Republic chooses," Darmanin said on Friday when asked on television news whether the government could declare a state of emergency.

The unrest has revived memories of three weeks of nationwide riots in 2005 that forced then President Jacques Chirac to declare a state of emergency after the death of two young men electrocuted in a power substation as they hid from police.

Players from the national soccer team issued a rare statement calling for calm. "Violence must stop to leave way for mourning, dialogue and reconstruction," they said on star Kylian Mbappe's Instagram account.

Looters have ransacked dozens of shops and torched some 2,000 vehicles since the riots started.

Events including two concerts at the Stade de France on the outskirts of Paris were cancelled, while Tour de France organisers said they were ready to adapt to any situation when the cycle race enters the country on Monday from Spain.