Paris fireman killed fighting riot blaze after mayor’s wife has leg broken as victim’s family pleas for end of violence
A PARIS fireman has been killed fighting a raging blaze amid a sixth consecutive night of riot mayhem across France.
It comes as the family of the teen whose police shooting death sparked upheaval throughout the country pleaded for the violence to end.
But as rioting continued into the early hours of Monday morning, a young fireman was killed as he tried to put out flames in an underground car park.
The 24-year-old, who has not been named, was on part of an emergency operation in the troubled northern suburb of Saint-Denis.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, said: “Overnight, while fighting against a blaze involving several vehicles in an underground car park in Saint-Denis, a young Corporal-Chief of the Paris Fire Brigade died despite very rapid treatment by his teammates.”
Rallies are set to be held today in front of town halls across France as people demand an end to the disruption.
The grandmother of the 17-year-old French-Algerian teen shot dead by a cop in Paris last Tuesday has begged for the violence to be stopped.
Nadia told French news broadcaster BFM TV: “Don’t break windows, buses, schools. We want to calm things down.”
She accused rioters of using her grandson Nahel M‘s death as an “excuse” for looting and brutality.
Nadia added: “I am tired, I can’t take it anymore, I can’t sleep, I turned off the TV, I turned everything off I don’t want to listen to this anymore.”
On Sunday night, the chaos appeared to begin subsiding as just 157 were arrested between Sunday and Monday – a steep drop down from the 2,000-plus taken into custody on Friday and Saturday.
But the rioting has yet to be fully squashed, with violent acts still troubling the people of France.
In Marseille, two policemen were left seriously ill in hospital after being ambushed by a mob and “beaten to the ground like dogs,” Mr Darmanin said.
One was stabbed repeatedly and the other suffered a fractured jaw in the savage attack.
Vincent Jeanbrun, the mayor of Paris suburb L’Hay-les-Roses, said his wife would not be able to walk for three months after their family home was ramraided on Saturday.
He said his family were asleep when the car was set alight and driven towards his house.
Prosecutors said the blazing vehicle was only stopped by a low wall as it was about to crash through the veranda inside the house.
The mayor’s wife and one of his children – aged five and seven – were injured as they scrambled to escape the attack through the rear of the property.
‘HORROR AND IGNOMINY’
He said: “It was an assassination attempt.
“A milestone was reached in horror and ignominy.”
The Association of French Mayors has called for “the population to mobilise in front of town halls at noon on Monday”.
They said: “We will sound the sirens, we will continue our daily work so that order returns.”
Some 45,000 extra police have been placed on the streets night after night as embattled president Emmanuel Macron’s security forces struggled to restore order.
And riots appear to have spread into Switzerland and Belgium, – where hundreds of thousands of protesters left furious by the killing of Nahel took to the streets.
Protesters were heard chanting “Justice for Nahel” in Brussels, while clashes between police and rioters were reported in the Swiss city of Lausanne in the early hours of Sunday.
Molotov Cocktails were hurled and shop windows smashed.
Riots erupted in France after Nahel was shot dead by a cop on Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre at the wheel of a Mercedes sports car.
The officer responsible – identified as Florian M, 38 – remains on remand having been charged with murder.
The teenager – who was too young to hold a full licence in France and was said to have disobeyed previous police orders to stop his car – was shot in the chest at point-blank range.
Officers said he was driving “fast” in a bus lane in the Polish-registered Merc while ignoring the blue flashing lights and endangered a pedestrian and a cyclist.
But lawyers acting for Nahel’s mum Mounia have accused the cop of “cold blooded murder”.