07 February 2017•Update: 07 February 2017
PARIS
Several people were arrested in a Parisian suburb during riots that erupted for the third consecutive evening on Monday over the alleged rape of a young man by police officers during an ID check, police said on Tuesday.
Police and youths clashed in the popular housing estate called "Cité des 3000”, where the incident involving the police officers took place last Thursday.
Images and footage of burning cars on the streets of the Aulnay-sous-Bois commune in Seine-Saint-Denis -- a suburb northeast of the French capital -- were posted on social media and broadcasted by local media.
At least three vehicles were set on fire and 24 people were arrested, according to police.
Four police officers were charged on Sunday night with a series of crimes -- including rape and assault -- over the violent arrest of 22-year-old Theo last Thursday night.
One officer has been charged with rape, the other three with voluntary violence.
The incident was captured on video by surveillance cameras belonging to local police, which shows an officer delivering a horizontal blow with his baton to the buttocks of a black man after the detainee's pants “dropped by themselves”, the Le Monde newspaper reported, citing a source close to the investigation.
Theo, who remains in hospital after having undergone emergency surgery, had been raped with a baton during the arrest, according to his lawyer Eric Dupond-Moretti. The alleged victim has been prescribed 60 days off work.
The officers denied doing it intentionally and said it was an “accident”.
Angry mothers took the streets of the Paris suburb on Monday afternoon expressing solidarity with Theo and their worries that “this barbaric act would be repeated again”.
French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux suspended the four police officers on Sunday "immediately and on a precautionary basis".
Last summer, 24-year-old Adama Traore, black man, died in police custody. His death triggered riots Beaumont-sur-Oise, located outside Paris. An investigation is ongoing.
In 2005, the death of two teenagers -- Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, who were electrocuted in a power substation after being chased by police in Clichy-sous-Bois, an eastern suburb of Paris -- sparked weeks of riots across France. Around 10,000 cars were burned and 6,000 people were arrested. Two police officers were cleared of charges of failing to assist someone in danger.
