More than 600 people were arrested in France on Thursday night as riots spread across the country. The violence erupted after a 17-year-old boy, named as Nahel M., was shot dead by police earlier this week during a traffic stop in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris.

Despite the deployment of some 40,000 police officers, authorities struggled to control the clashes in major cities and smaller urban areas alike. Public buildings and transportation systems were the main targets, but some districts saw shops looted, too.

^{A man walks by burning tyres blocking a street in Bordeaux | Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images}

 

^{A firefighter looks on as vehicles burn following riots in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre | Zakaria Abdelkafi/AFP via Getty Images}

^{Fireworks explode during protests in Nanterre, west of Paris | Zakaria Abdelkafi/AFP via Getty Images}