Macron dances.. while France burns

President at Elton John show as rioting spreads

- ANDY LINES

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron danced at an Elton John concert as riots flared across his country.

Some 917 people were arrested on Thursday night and police stations, town halls, schools, banks, shops and houses set ablaze over the shooting of 17-year-old Nahel M by police this week.

The violence has been heightened by a sense of injustice among French youth that the police are institutionally racist.

Mr Macron, 45, was pictured watching the Rocketman, 76, perform at Paris' Accor Arena on Wednesday night as Paris burned.

The president and his wife Brigitte, 70, even posed for a photograph with Sir Elton and his husband David Furnish, 60, backstage after the concert.

In Lyon, Strasbourg and other cities last night there was a co-ordinated protest by union organisers "against racism and police violence".

The size of the demonstrations over the past four days has shocked the establishment.

Shops in Paris were looted and there was even violence in smaller rural towns.

There are fears there will be more trouble at the funeral of Nahel, which is set to take place in Paris later today.

More than 6,000 fires were started on public roads during four nights of with 40,000 police unrest, officers deployed on the streets.

Mr Macron called an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday and urged parents to keep their children at home.

Videos online showed thousands of under 18s on streets.

The president said social media was fuelling copycat violence and the government was asking platforms like Snapchat and TikTok to the most remove sensitive content.