Paris: Following the fatal shooting by police of a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop, interior minister Gerald Darmanin announced on Thursday that 150 people had been detained in France after a second night of unrest across the nation.
In the meantime, French President Emmanuel Macron called the widespread violence "unjustifiable."
At the beginning of a crisis meeting with senior ministers, he was speaking. The president added on Wednesday that the fatal shooting was "inexcusable."
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Dozens of police officers were reportedly hurt during the clashes, according to the interior ministry.
"A night of intolerable violence against republican symbols: fires set in town halls, schools, and police stations. "150 arrests," Darmanin wrote on Twitter.
The use of deadly force by police against the teenager, who was of North African descent, in the working-class Paris suburb of Nanterre has contributed to a pervasive perception of police brutality in the racially diverse areas of France's largest cities.
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In the Paris region, 2,000 police officers were mobilised, according to the interior ministry's statement on Wednesday. At around midnight on Nanterre's Avenue Pablo Picasso, a queue of burning overturned cars burned as fireworks fizzed at police lines.
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According to a police spokesman, there was unrest in Amiens, Dijon, and the administrative department of Essonne in the south of the French capital, as well as in the northern city of Lille and the southern city of Toulouse.
At a press conference at 11:00, the Nanterre prosecutor is expected to provide an update on an ongoing investigation into Tuesday's fatal shooting of the teenager.