Nahel M. shooting protesters attack Chinese tour bus, mayor’s home

He said his wife and one of his children were injured while trying to escape. He was working in the town hall when the attack happened, he added.

“Tonight, a milestone was reached in horror and ignominy,” Jeanbrun tweeted Sunday, calling the attack “an assassination attempt of incredible cowardice.”

Politicians widely condemned the attack, and Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said an attempted murder investigation was opened.

Authorities in Beijing also said Sunday that a bus carrying Chinese tourists was attacked last week. The windows of the bus were smashed, and several people were lightly injured, the Foreign Ministry said.

China’s Consulate in Marseille “immediately lodged complaints with the French side, demanding that they ensure the personal and property safety of the Chinese citizens,” the ministry said.

He Shuai, head of consular services in Marseille, told China’s Southern Metropolis Daily that the attack against the 41-person group occurred on Thursday evening.

Police in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, where Marseille is located, confirmed in a phone call Sunday that a bus containing a Chinese tour group was attacked during the riots in the city but said they could not confirm whether anyone was injured because of the volume of incidents that took place in recent days.

Police said the bus was attacked because it was near a construction site where rioters had gone to find more projectiles. The bus was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and was not targeted specifically because of the passengers’ race, police said.

France detains hundreds amid riots over police killing of teen

France has been shaken by protests, many of which turned violent, over the death of Nahel M., a 17-year-old of North African descent who was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in a suburb of Paris last week. The incident has inflamed anti-police and anti-state sentiment in France, particularly in the suburbs of major cities, or “banlieues” — where minority communities often grapple with discrimination and high unemployment.

Tens of thousands of police officers have been mobilized to deal with vandalism, looting and destruction of public property in cities across France. Police have fired tear gas into crowds of protesters.

Saturday night was “calmer” than previous nights thanks to the “resolute action” of law enforcement, Darmanin said early Sunday on Twitter. Still, the Interior Ministry said that 719 people were arrested overnight across the country and that 45 police officers were injured.

Stéphane Hardouin, the prosecutor for the Val-de-Marne department, which L’Hay-les-Roses is part of, said that “a burning vehicle entered the enclosure of the mayor’s pavilion” early Sunday and was stopped, apparently by a low wall. The vehicle damaged the front gate and the family’s car, he said.

He said initial facts suggested that “the vehicle was launched to burn” the mayor’s home. An accelerant was found in a Coca-Cola bottle during the investigation, he said.

“Hearing a noise and seeing flames, the mayor’s wife and her two children fled through the back garden,” the prosecutor said. The mayor’s wife injured her tibia while fleeing, he said. The children are 5 and 7, he added.

Fifty-six people were arrested overnight in Marseille, a city with a large population of residents of North African descent that has been at the heart of French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for urban renewal outside of the capital. Several stores were looted and trash cans set on fire as police in riot gear spread throughout the city, France 24 reported.

It was there, on Thursday, that the Chinese tour group was caught up in the riots, and its bus attacked for five to six minutes, according to He, of the Chinese consulate.

A woman who was on the bus told the state-run Hangzhou Transportation 918 radio station that police didn’t come to the group’s rescue during the attack. The woman, identified only by her surname, Ma, said the group was on its way to a hotel in Marseille around 10:30 p.m. when over a dozen masked people dressed in black started hurling bricks at the bus. Some of the attackers attempted to board the bus before being rebuffed by passengers, Ma said, according to the radio station.

Several tour members were injured by broken shards of glass, and others sustained minor injuries when trying to stop the attackers from getting on the bus, she continued. The group was evacuated to Geneva, about a 4½-hour drive from Marseille, arriving there Saturday, she said.

In photos: Roads, buildings smolder after chaotic protests in France

In Paris, the Interior Ministry deployed extra security around the Champs-Elysées, a major shopping avenue that leads to the Arc de Triomphe monument, after calls to target the area were issued on social media. Nearly 400 officers patrolled the sector Saturday night and into Sunday, dispersing groups of young people and closing down the avenue around 12:30 a.m., according to Le Monde. Police said they arrested 37 people who carried weapons and posted photos of seized material, including what appeared to be brass knuckles.

The widespread protests began Tuesday night, after Nahel was killed by a police officer in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. Prosecutors said Nahel was driving dangerously and refused to stop the car for an inspection when asked by two traffic police officers on motorcycles. The officers pulled alongside the car and pointed their guns at Nahel, and one officer fired a bullet that penetrated the teen’s arm and chest.

The officer who fired the shot was detained and is being investigated on an intentional homicide charge.

Rick Noack contributed to this report.