UPRISINGS across France sparked by the police shooting of a teenager continued into the early hours of this morning.

On the sixth night of unrest protesters targeted public buildings, cars and municipal bins but authorities said that they believed the riots were easing.

The Interior Ministry said that there were 157 arrests overnight out of a total of 3,354 since last Tuesday, and that two law enforcement stations were attacked, among other damage.

“We all have to ask ourselves about the responsibility of families,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

There has been little in the way of organised protests beyond a march last week for Nahel, the teenager killed last Tuesday. 

But many activists say that the night-time riots are a lashing out against a French state that many young people with immigrant roots say is routinely racist against them.

Nahel was of Algerian descent and was shot in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

About 45,000 officers were deployed nationwide to counter violence fuelled by anger over discrimination against people who trace their roots to former French colonies and live in low-income neighbourhoods.

Across France, 297 vehicles were torched overnight along with 34 buildings, many of them linked to the government. In all, a total of 99 town halls have been attacked, according to the Interior Ministry.

A 24-year-old firefighter died of a heart attack while responding to a blaze in an underground garage that spread to the apartment building above, according to Paris police. 

The cause of the fire was under investigation, they said in a statement.

French Communist Party general secretary Fabien Roussel said: “I want to express our sorrow and send our most sincere condolences to his family and to his comrades. Too many deaths that shouldn’t be.”

Mr Roussel tweeted a “powerful picture” of mothers from the black community marching through Aulnay-Sous-Bois carrying banners calling for an end to the violence. 

“Congratulations ladies, we are on your side,” he said.

France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said that the answers to these problems “are always political.”

He said: “The only thing we can do is to try to bring about support.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has blamed social media for the spread of the unrest and called on parents to take responsibility for their teenagers. 

Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun of the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses said that his wife and one of his children were injured when a burning car struck his home over the weekend.

He said blaming social media or parents was papering over a bigger problem.

“The base ingredients are still there,” he said.