Grandma of French teen killed by police calls for riots to stop

The grandmother of the French teenager who was killed by a police officer on Tuesday has called for the riots in his name to end.

Unrest has spread from the outskirts of Paris to towns and cities across France in the five nights since 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk was shot dead on Tuesday morning.

Curfews were enforced and tens of thousands of officers and gendarmes were deployed, as rioters angry about police treatment of minorities destroyed buildings and vehicles.

Speaking to French news channel BFM TV this afternoon, Nahel’s grandmother Nadia said: ‘I want it to stop everywhere.’

She continued: ‘The people who are destroying, I tell them stop! Let them not destroy the schools, the buses.’

Nadia did not attend the ‘marche blanche’ which was led by Nahel’s mother Mounia on Thursday, saying she did not want to leave the spot where her grandson died.

The solemn procession soon led to further violence on the streets of Nanterre, where Nahel lived and died, with several cars flipped and set alight.

Speaking of the devastating impact of the past week on her family, Nadia said she is ‘tired’, adding: ‘It’s over, my daughter no longer has a life.’

Mounia has previously spoken about the pain she felt following the death of her only son, a pizza delivery boy who was a keen rugby player.

In a social media video posted earlier this week, she said: ‘I only had one, he was my best friend, my son, we were so close.’

Echoing a similar statement from her daughter, Nadia said she only blames the single police officer who killed Nahel for his death, and does not harbour bad feelings towards police more widely.

‘I trust in justice,’ she said.

President Emmanuel Macron has cancelled a trip to Germany, which would have been the first state visit to the country by a French president in 23 years, due to the unrest.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told public TV channel ARD: ‘We are of course watching with concern, and I very much hope, I am totally convinced, that the French head of state will find the means to ensure that the situation improves quickly.’

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