Gerald Darmanin

Young rioters clashed with police late Saturday and early Sunday and targeted a mayor's home with a burning car as France faced a fifth night of unrest sparked by the police killing of a teenager, but overall violence appeared to lessen compared to previous nights.

President Emmanuel Macron is trying to contain the growing crisis after midnight riots in France sparked by the fatal police shooting of a North African teenager during a police check in a French suburb, Reuters reported.

A French police officer who shot and killed a 17-year-old driver will be investigated for voluntary homicide, following two days of fires and violent protests that injured scores of officers, officials said Thursday.

Some 40,000 police officers will be deployed overnight to quell violence that engulfed cities and towns in the wake of the shooting.

A strong explosion rocked a building in Paris' Left Bank on Wednesday, injuring at least 24 people, igniting a fire that sent smoke soaring over the French capital's monuments and prompting an evacuation of other properties, authorities said. Police were investigating suspicions that a gas leak caused the blast.

At least 108 policemen and gendarmerie were injured yesterday in France, of which twenty in Paris, during clashes in the course of protests against the pension reform, reported APP and BTA, referring to the French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

291 people were arrested across the country, 90 of them in Paris.

More than 1 million people demonstrated across France on Thursday against unpopular pension reforms, and violence erupted in some places as unions called for new nationwide strikes and protests next week, coinciding with King Charles III's planned visit to France.

Angry protesters took to the streets in Paris and other cities for a second day on Friday, trying to pressure lawmakers to bring down French President Emmanuel Macron's government and doom the unpopular retirement age increase he's trying to impose without a vote in the National Assembly.

Alamy Photo

French media are reporting that people have been stabbed at a Paris train station and the interior minister says several people were injured before police "rapidly neutralized" the attacker.

Media reports, quoting unnamed police sources, say police opened fire early Wednesday morning on the attacker who was armed with a knife and injured several people.

More than 1,000 firefighters were struggling Thursday to contain a major wildfire which has burned a large area of pine forest in southwestern France, in a region that was already ravaged by flames last month.

France hosts a meeting of European ministers on Nov. 28 to discuss ways to stop migrants crossing the Channel in dinghies, but without Britain, which has been excluded following a row last week.