French-Turkish teen biker declared brain-dead after police car chase, collision

The French government, on Thursday, called for calm after a 16-year-old boy of Turkish descent, whose motorbike collided with a police car in disputed circumstances on a road outside Paris, was declared brain-dead, Reuters reports.

The victim’s family’s lawyer accused police of ramming a patrol car into his motocross bike during a high-speed chase.

Prosecutors said two officers were in custody, pending a possible manslaughter investigation, adding that police said the teenager had failed to stop as instructed while riding along the pavement and, as he fled, had hit a police vehicle at a crossroads.

Prosecutors said, earlier in the day, that the boy had died.

Wednesday’s crash happened just over two months after police shot and killed a 17-year-old of North African descent at a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

That incident sparked five days of riots and looting across the country, tapping a deep vein of resentment among France’s suburban poor, particularly communities of immigrant descent who have long accused police of violence and racial profiling.

A police union source said a squad from the elite CRS8 anti-riot unit was being deployed to Elancourt, the town in the Yvelines department, west of the capital where the crash occurred.

The teenager, who lawyer Yassine Bouzrou said was a dual French-Turkish national, was hospitalised after sustaining critical injuries at the scene.

Government spokesman, Olivier Veran, said the investigations under way would determine the “exact circumstances” of the crash.

“Obviously I am calling for calm… I am calling for restraint and careful consideration,” he said on France Inter radio. “Regardless of how dramatic a situation is, it needs answers that we do not yet have.”

The collision occurred as France gears up to host the Rugby World Cup. The tournament, one of the major events on this year’s international sporting calendar, kicks off on Friday when France play New Zealand at the Stade de France near Paris.

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