UPDATE: 700 arrested, 200 police officers injured in French protests

At least 667 people across France were arrested till Friday as Paris and other parts of the country burned for the third consecutive night over the killing of a 17-year-old boy.

Riots broke out in and around the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where the teen of North African descent, identified as Nahel M, 17, was shot during a traffic check, VOA said.

Police and firefighters struggled to contain protesters and extinguish numerous blazes that damaged schools, police stations and town halls or other public buildings, the national police said.

The police officer accused of shooting the teenager reportedly sought forgiveness from the boy’s family, his lawyer has said.

The lawyer, Laurent-Franck Lienard said, “The first words he pronounced were to say sorry and the last words he said were to say sorry to the family.

“He is devastated, he doesn’t get up in the morning to kill people. He didn’t want to kill him.”

Lienard said the officer had aimed down towards the driver’s leg but was bumped, which caused him to shoot towards his chest. “He had to be stopped, but obviously [the officer] didn’t want to kill the driver,” he said.

The lawyer added that his client’s detention was being used to try to calm rioters.

The officer was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide after prosecutor Pascal Prache said his initial investigation led him to conclude “the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met”.

The prosecutor said Nahel died from a single shot through his left arm and chest while driving off after being stopped by police.

According to VOA, the officer alleged that he opened fire as he feared that he and his colleague or someone else could be hit by the car.

French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to hold an emergency government meeting later on Friday.

“These acts are totally unjustifiable,” Macron said at the beginning of Thursday’s emergency security meeting, which aimed at securing hot spots and planning for the coming days “so full peace can return”.