PARIS authorities strengthened the police presence in the northern suburb of La Courneuve near the Paris 2024 Olympics Village following an attack on a police station late on Sunday.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told reporters that nine people had been arrested after some 50 youths clashed with police and attacked the La Courneuve police station with fireworks launchers on Sunday.
The attack was in protest at the death of a young man from La Courneuve who died in the nearby town of Aubervilliers during a police chase last week, after he had refused to stop his motorbike when police had ordered him to do so.
Asked about the danger of riots in northern Paris suburbs during the Olympics, Nunez said there was little risk of that.
“Police have a strong presence there today and that will be even more the case during the Olympics, when we will have a massive presence everywhere in the Paris region, and I have no fear on that level,” Nunez told reporters.
La Courneuve is just a few km (miles) from the Paris 2024 Olympics Village in the northern suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis, an underprivileged department north of Paris, which hopes to get a boost from Olympics infrastructure investment.
Security is of paramount importance for French authorities with the Paris Olympics due to start on July 26.
Some Paris Olympics sites were vandalised during rioting in the summer of 2023 which was triggered by the fatal shooting of a teenager of north African descent by police.
Nunez, who said two policemen were slightly injured in the clashes on Sunday, said that in the coming hours and days dozens of extra police were being brought in to ensure calm.
“The reinforcements will stay there for as long as necessary,” Nunez said.
