Forty thousand police officers have been deployed across France as rioting continued for a third night following the deadly police shooting of a teenager.

It was four times the number of law enforcement officers mobilised the previous day with the violence centred on Nanterre on the outskirts of Paris where 17-year-old Nahel M was shot dead on Tuesday.

Protesters torched cars, barricaded streets and hurled projectiles at police following a peaceful vigil, scrawling “Vengeance for Nahel” across buildings and bus shelters. As night set on Thursday a bank was set alight before firemen put it out.

Local authorities in Clamart, 8km from central Paris, imposed a night-time curfew until Monday.

Valerie Pecresse, who heads the greater Paris region, said all bus and tram services would be halted after 9pm after some were set alight the previous night.

National police said on Thursday night that officers faced new incidents in Marseille, Lyon, Pau, Toulouse and Lille including fires and fireworks.

In Marseille police fired tear gas grenades during clashes with youths in the tourist hotspot of Le Vieux Port, the city’s main paper La Provence reported.

“The response of the state must be extremely firm,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said earlier, speaking from the northern town of Mons-en-Baroeul where several municipal buildings were set alight.

A local prosecutor said the officer who shot the teenager had been put under formal investigation for voluntary homicide and would be held in prison.

Under France’s legal system, being placed under formal investigation is akin to being charged.

“The public prosecutor considers that the legal conditions for using the weapon have not been met,” prosecutor Pascal Prache told a news conference.

The teenager had initially failed to stop after the Mercedes AMG he was driving was spotted in a bus lane. Two police officers caught up with the car in a traffic jam.

When the car made to get away, one officer fired at close range through the driver’s window. Nahel died from a single shot through his left arm and chest, Prache said.

The officer has acknowledged firing a lethal shot, the prosecutor said, telling investigators he had wanted to prevent a car chase, fearing he or another person would be hurt after the teenager allegedly committed several traffic violations.

The officer’s lawyer said his client had aimed down towards the driver’s leg but was bumped, causing him to shoot towards his chest.

“He had to be stopped, but obviously (the officer) didn’t want to kill the driver,” Laurent-Franck Lienard said on BFM TV, adding that his client’s detention was being used to try to calm rioters.

Nahel was known to police for previously failing to comply with traffic stop orders, Prache said.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said the shooting was unforgivable. As he convened his emergency meeting he also condemned the unrest.

At a march in Nanterre in memory of Nahel, participants railed against what they perceived as a culture of police impunity and a failure to reform law enforcement in a country that has experienced waves of rioting and protests over police conduct.

Thousands thronged the streets. Riding atop a flatbed truck, the teenager’s mother waved to the crowd wearing a white T-shirt reading “Justice for Nahel” and the date of his death.

“I have nothing against the police. I have something against one person, he who killed my son. He did not have to kill my son,” Nahel’s mother told France 5 television after the march.

– AAP