In front of a decayed office building, a charred car carcass still spreads a burning smell. In the nearby park, the carousel where the neighborhood children once twirled is now nothing but metal sheets, ashes and scrap metal. In this desolate landscape, the merchants of Nanterre are busy this Monday morning, pretending to resume a normal life after several nights of riots in the neighborhood. "We are forced to work, we have to fill the coffers," says Medhat, owner of the Carmina pizzeria, a stone's throw from Nanterre-Préfecture station.
The large terrace, which has been the splendour of his establishment for fifteen years, is completely burned; All that remains is the frame blackened by the flames. At the end of the white march in tribute to Nahel, the 17-year-old minor killed by a police officer after a refusal to comply in Nanterre last Tuesday, young people invested last Thursday the park bordered by the pizzeria of Medhat. They decided around 18 p.m. to set fire to his terrace, before trying in vain to enter the restaurant. "The neighbors called me and I ran over. When I arrived, it was too late. The firefighters could not do anything, "says the restorer.
In the middle of the empty chairs, four days later, his three employees prepare the lunch service. At the back of the room, the boss multiplies...
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