French teenager dies after collision with police vehicle, govt. fears further riots

A 16-year-old boy has died following a collision between his scooter and a police vehicle west of Paris just over two months after a teen's fatal shooting by police sparked a week of riots.

The teenager died in hospital from injuries he sustained in the collision on Wednesday night. The teenager, identified in the media as Sefa S, was initially revived from respiratory and cardiac arrest by first responders and brought to hospital but later succumbed to his injuries.

The deceased is accused of failing to comply with officers, a police source said, adding that he was being "followed at a distance" by a police car through Elancourt, a town around 30 kilometers outside Paris.

He collided with "another police vehicle" at an intersection, the source added, with a second police source saying the crash happened at around 6:40 pm (1640 GMT).

French police officers in custody after deadly crash

Prosecutors said two police officers were in custody pending a manslaughter investigation.

The prosecutors also said they were investigating police allegations that the teenager failed to stop while riding his motocross bike along the pavement and, as he fled, hit a police vehicle at a crosssection.

France racial protests

Clashes have erupted between French police and protesters angry at the fatal shooting of a teenager by an officer.

The French government fears riots following the teen death

Extra police have been deployed to Elancourt, a town of 25,000 people, to forestall any potential unrest.

Government spokesman Olivier Veran said the investigations underway would determine the "exact circumstances" of Wednesday's collision. "Obviously I am calling for calm.... I am calling for restraint and careful consideration," he said on France Inter radio. "Regardless of how dramatic a situation is, it needs answers that we do not yet have."

Wednesday's crash happened just over two months after police shot and killed a 17-year-old of North African descent at a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre

A video of the point-blank shooting spread online, sparking outrage and rioting across France in an echo of past episodes of unrest-triggered deaths of young men with migrant backgrounds in encounters with police.

Over 700 arrested across France in persisting protests amid claims of ebbing unrest

More than 700 people are arrested overnight as violent protests over the killing of a teenager are sweeping France for the fifth consecutive night.

The riots saw clashes with security forces, widespread looting of shops and businesses and fires set at public buildings including schools and town halls.

By the end of August, almost 4,000 people had been arrested and 2,000 sentenced, according to government figures, while police internal affairs officers were investigating 33 cases of suspected police violence.

Insurance industry association France Assureurs on Wednesday estimated the total damage from the riots at 730 million euros ($782 million) -- 90 percent from damage to businesses and municipal buildings.

France commences hasty trials for thousands of youth arrested in protests

France begins the hasty trials process for thousands of youths arrested in recent protests.

The police killing of Nahel Merzouk had renewed old grievances regarding police brutality and racial profiling.

Meanwhile, the police killing of the Arab youth had tapped into the long-festering resentment of police brutality among many French minorities and rekindled a long, painful debate about racial profiling by police — a pernicious phenomenon that has been addressed in numerous reports.

The French government has already been accused of conducting attacks on migrants, racial profiling and religious intolerance during the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which examines the human rights record of all the 193 UN member states every four years.

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