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Police units were dispatched from Paris to strengthen security in the western city of Lyon after three consecutive nights of violent street clashes between law enforcement and local youth groups.
Three suburbs of the southeastern city have seen clashes between police and youths over the past three consecutive nights.
Twenty-one arrests, mostly minors, were made, including five linked to the violence on Saturday evening.
Three police officers were confronted with 30 assailants following a routine visit to a youth shelter in Bron district. The officers were forced to abandon their vehicle and take refuge inside the refuge. A police car was badly damaged.
Police video shows 15 young people smashing the doors, windshield and hood of the car. An investigation has been opened.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced that a “third mobile police unit” would be sent to the Lyon suburbs.
More than 200 police officers were deployed Sunday to “enforce Republican law,” he added.
Rival versions of events in Bron suggest violence erupted after a young man was injured in a fall during clashes with police.
On Thursday, the violence was concentrated in the Duchère region. A 13-year-old was seriously injured in a fall from a scooter while being chased by a police vehicle, according to local press. The police deny this version of events.
The incident is under investigation by the police oversight body, IGPN.
On Friday evening, clashes took place in Rilieux-la-Pape where cars were set on fire and urban property vandalized.
Police action against local drug lords
According to the mayor of Bron, Jérémie Bréaud of the right-wing Les Républicans party, the violence was caused by a recent police action directed against local drug traffickers.
Jérémie Bréaud is himself accompanied by a police bodyguard following a series of threats against him.
The Lyon suburbs have been the scene of a series of violent clashes with the police as the main target, particularly in 2005 and 2015.
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