— UPDATED

Tens of thousands of police have been deployed in cities across France ready for a potential fifth night of rioting after the funeral of a teenager, whose shooting by police sparked unrest across the country.

President Emmanuel Macron postponed a state visit to Germany that was due to begin on Sunday to handle the worst crisis for his leadership since the “Yellow Vest” protests paralysed much of France in late 2018.

About 45,000 police would again be on the street into Saturday night, interior minister Gerald Darmanin said, with reinforcements going to Lyon and Marseille.

Police deployed tear gas against rioters in Marseille’s main high street around dusk on Saturday, according to a witness.

In Paris police cleared protesters from the Place de la Concorde and increased security at the city’s landmark Champs Elysees avenue after a call on social media to gather there.

TV images showed shop facades covered with boards to prevent potential damage.

The interior ministry said 1311 people had been arrested on Friday night, compared with 875 the previous night, although it described the violence as “lower in intensity”.

Finance minister Bruno Le Maire said more than 700 shops, supermarkets, restaurants and bank branches had been “ransacked, looted and sometimes even burnt to the ground since Tuesday”.

People walk past a damaged shop following a night of looting and rioting in Marseille, France, 01 July 2023. Photo: AAP

Local authorities all over the country announced bans on demonstrations and ordered public transport to stop running in the evening.

Funeral fuels emotions

Nahel, a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan parents, was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

For the funeral, several hundred people lined up to enter Nanterre’s grand mosque, which was guarded by volunteers in yellow vests while a few dozen bystanders watched from across the street.

Some of the mourners, their arms crossed, said “God is Greatest” in Arabic as they spanned the boulevard in prayer.

Marie, 60, said she had lived in Nanterre for 50 years and there had always been problems with the police.

“This absolutely needs to stop. The government is completely disconnected from our reality,” she said.

The shooting of the teenager, caught on video, has reignited longstanding complaints by poor and racially mixed urban communities of police violence and racism.

“If you have the wrong skin colour, the police are much more dangerous to you,” said a young man, who declined to be named, adding that he was a friend of Nahel’s.

Nahel was known to police for previously failing to comply with traffic stop orders and was illegally driving a rental car, the Nanterre prosecutor said on Thursday.

Macron has denied there is systemic racism in French law enforcement agencies.

Widespread fires, injuries and arrests

Rioters have torched 2000 vehicles since the start of the unrest.

More than 200 police officers have been injured, Darmanin said, adding that the average age of those arrested was 17.

In Marseille, where 80 people had been arrested on Friday, police said they had detained 14 more as they tried to disperse crowds.

Mayor Benoit Payan called on the government to send extra troops to tackle “pillaging and violence” in Marseille, where three police officers were slightly wounded on Saturday.

In Lyon, France’s third largest city, police deployed armoured personnel carriers and a helicopter while in Paris they cleared protesters from the Place de la Concorde.

A decree issued on Saturday gave Paris police the right to deploy drones in parts of the suburbs.

Players from the French football team issued a rare statement calling for calm.

“Violence must stop to leave way for mourning, dialogue and reconstruction,” they said on star Kylian Mbappe’s Instagram account.

The policeman whom prosecutors say acknowledged firing a lethal shot at Nahel is in preventive custody under formal investigation for voluntary homicide.

His lawyer, Laurent-Franck Lienard, said his client had aimed at the driver’s leg but was bumped when the car took off, causing him to shoot towards his chest.

“Obviously (the officer) didn’t want to kill the driver,” Lienard said on BFM TV.

— AAP