At least 421 people have been arrested in France this Thursday, according to data provided by the team of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, within the framework of theprotests over the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy at the hands of an agent at a police checkpoint. Of the total arrests, at least 242 have taken place in the Paris region. Also, most have between 14 and 18 years old.

“These record arrests reflect the firm instructions given by the minister,” a source close to Darmanin told the newspaper ‘Le Figaró’. Darmanin has “given systematic intervention instructions to the Police” and has shown his support for the country’s security forces “who are doing a brave job”, as reported around midnight through his profile on the social network Twitter.

Around 03:00 in the morning, the situation in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, continues “tense” for the third night in a row, as reported by the BFMTV chain, which indicates that the Police and Firefighters are still at the scene.

Thousands of people have gathered this Thursday in Nanterre to protest the death of the young man Nahel, who was shot at point-blank range after his vehicle was intercepted, on a day in which the French Government has announced the deployment of 40,000 police and gendarmes to contain the violence in France.

The call ‘White march’, summoned by the young man’s mother, paraded through the streets of Nanterre until it ended up in court, where shortly before the city prosecutor, Pascal Prache, determined that the agent involved in the case should remain in pretrial detention on suspicion of murder.