Rioting and looting spread across Europe last night after the ‘execution’ killing of a teenager in Paris – as pictures emerged of President Emmanuel Macron partying with Elton John while his country burnt, triggering a furious backlash.
Mr Macron was filmed at Paris’s Accor Arena on Wednesday evening, watching the singer on his farewell tour, while rioters caused mayhem in the capital following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old identified as Nahel on Tuesday.
The French President was snapped arm in arm with the legendary 76-year-old artist – who he bestowed France’s Legion of Honour award – alongside his wife Brigitte.
But while Macron was hobnobbing backstage, police were locked in fierce clashes with protesters, making 650 arrests nationwide overnight – as public anger spilled out onto the streets of France’s major cities for a third night.
Protesters torched cars, barricaded roads and hurled projectiles at police. Other rioters scrawled ‘Vengeance for Nahel’ across buildings and bus shelters as a bank was set ablaze.
And in a fresh escalation of the chaos, violent clashes reportedly spread into the Belgium capital of Brussels, amid fears further protests could spread to other European capitals.
In a desperate attempt to quell the civil unarrest, some 40,000 French cops are today being deployed nationwide.
But Macron’s photo with Elton ignited outrage overnight, with Thierry Mariani, an MEP with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, raging: ‘While France was on fire, Macron applauded Elton John’, the Telegraph reported.
