Firefighter dies trying to douse vehicles set ablaze during France riots

Interior Minister announces death of emergency worker, which comes after a quieter night of rioting

A firefighter died while extinguishing burning vehicles in a Paris suburb, it was announced on Monday. Reuters

A firefighter has died outside Paris trying to douse vehicles set ablaze during riots, the country's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday.

The 24-year-old died of a heart attack while fighting a fire which had engulfed several vehicles in an underground car park in the suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, north of the capital, Mr Darmanin said.

Paris police said the cause of the fire was under investigation and the interior ministry said it was unclear if there was a link to the violent protests.

Writing on Twitter, he said: "A young 24-year-old Corporal Chief of the Paris Fire Brigade died despite very rapid care by his teammates.

"All my sincere and saddened condolences to his family, loved ones, comrades and the Paris Fire Brigade."

The incident occurred on the sixth night of violence following the death of 17-year-old Nahel M, who was shot during a traffic stop last Tuesday.

Internal affairs investigators on Monday began interviewing a passenger in the car Nahel was driving without a licence, a police source news agency AFP.

Thousands of people have been arrested since the onset of the disorder.

In one of the most serious incidents, protesters rammed a car into the home of a Paris mayor, injuring his wife and one of his children.

But tensions appeared to have eased in recent days, with just 157 arrests as of 1.30am on Monday, down from a peak of 3,880 on Friday night.

Across the country, 297 vehicles were torched overnight along with 34 buildings.

Nahel's funeral was held on Saturday near Nanterre, the Paris suburb where he lived and was shot dead.

On Sunday, his grandmother appealed for calm in an interview with BFM TV, telling protesters: "Stop and do not riot", and saying that the rioters were only using his death as a "pretext".

"I tell the people who are rioting this: Do not smash windows, attack schools or buses. Stop. It's the mums who are taking the bus, it's the mums who walk outside," she said.

France riots - in pictures

Police special forces – the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group – have been deployed each night alongside 45,000 officers to riot-hit cities including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Strasbourg.

Curfews have been imposed and buses and trams in France have stopped running after 9pm, while the sale of large fireworks and flammable liquids has been banned in an attempt to break the cycle of violence.

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged parents to take responsibility for rioters, one third of whom were “young or very young”.

Among 3,200 people arrested in rioting since Tuesday, the average age was 17 and some were "children, there is no other word, of 12 or 13, said Mr Darmanin said on a visit to eastern city Reims.

Eric Dupond-Moretti, the Justice Minister, told France Inter radio that parents who abdicated that responsibility “either through disinterest or deliberately” would be prosecuted.

Mr Macron plans to meet with the heads of both houses of Parliament on Monday and with the mayors of 220 towns and cities affected by the protests on Tuesday.

He also plans to start a detailed, longer-term assessment of the reasons that led to the unrest, according to an official.

The UN rights office said on Friday that the killing of the teen of North African descent was “a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and racial discrimination in law enforcement”.

The French Foreign Ministry said any suggestion of systemic discrimination in the police force was “totally unfounded”.

The 38-year-old policeman who shot Nahel has been charged with voluntary homicide and has been remanded in custody.

An “insulting” crowdfunding appeal set up for the French policeman who shot Nahel M, leading to six successive nights of violent protests, has raised €1 million – almost 10 times that collected for the family of the 17-year-old he killed.