Police made more than 1,300 arrests in France’s fourth night of rioting following the death of a teen shot by police, whose funeral took place on Saturday.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported that the violence was “of a much lower intensity” than the previous nights, but his portfolio recorded 1,311 arrests across the country.

The number of arrests reported this Saturday is the highest since the riots began on Tuesday, following the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old boy who was shot at close range by a police officer during a traffic check in a Paris suburb.

More than 900 arrests in France amid violent protests over the death of a young Algerian

His funeral began this Saturday in Nanterre, the commune northwest of Paris where he lived. A large crowd gathered at the local cemetery, where the atmosphere was tense, according to a journalist from the AFP.

“May he rest in peace, may justice be done. I have come to support the mother, she had no one but him, the poor thing,” he told the AFP a woman who would not give her name leaves the Nanterre funeral home.

Nahel M.’s death sparked four nights of rioting across France. At dawn on Saturday, 1,350 vehicles were set on fire or damaged, 234 buildings burned or damaged, and 2,560 fires registered on public roads, according to authorities.

The Interior Ministry also claimed that 79 police officers and gendarmes were injured.

Similarly, the death of the young man, whose family is originally from Algeria, sparked debate about police brutality in France, where 13 people died in similar circumstances in 2022, and sparked criticism of law enforcement, which the population perceived as racist.

Neither the 45,000 mobilized officers nor the armored vehicles deployed across the country managed to stop acts of vandalism in cities such as Marseille (south) or Lyon and Grenoble, both in the center-east, where groups of people – in many fallen hood-looted stores.

In Paris and its suburbs, there were riots early Saturday morning, despite the rain. There were 406 arrests in that area, nearly half the arrests nationwide, a police source told the AFP.

Authorities have imposed curfews in at least three cities in the French capital and several other cities across the country.

On Saturday morning, the merchants of several cities, such as Lyon, took stock of the damage in anguish.

“I’ll call on Monday [a la agencia inmobiliaria] Omnium and I have put everything up for sale, that’s enough,” explained the owner of a shop, located in a pedestrian street full of rubble, in the center of the city.

“You have to go, there’s nothing else to do,” said the manager of a small nearby hotel.

The executive branch decided to suspend all major events and organized another crisis cell meeting to study next steps, the prime minister’s office reported.

In addition, ministers were asked to stay in Paris for the weekend.