Violence solves nothing: Mbappe calls for peace in France

France football captain Kylian Mbappe has called to end the violence in riot-hit France.

Unrest has flared nationwide, including in cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Lille as well as Paris where Nahel M, a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was shot on Tuesday in the Nanterre suburb.

"Violence solves nothing, especially when it inevitably turns against those who are expressing it," Mbappe posted on his Instagram story. He also urged for "peaceful and constructive" protests.

"Like all French people were were marked and shocked by the death of young Nahel."

Mbappe said that the France players, many of whom come from working-class neighbourhoods like Nahel, share "the feelings of sadness and pain".

The 24-year-old said the players "could not remain silent" as they called for the "time of violence to give way to that of mourning, dialogue and reconstruction".

Paris St-Germain forward Mbappe and 2018 World Cup winner was handed France captaincy in March this year.

Nahel M's death, caught on video, has reignited longstanding complaints by poor and racially mixed urban communities of police violence and racism.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said early on Saturday that 270 people had been arrested on Friday night, bringing the total to more than 1,100 since unrest ignited.

Friday night's arrests included 80 people in the southern city of Marseille, France's second-largest and home to many people of North African descent.

Social media images showed an explosion rocking Marseille's old port area. City authorities said they were investigating the cause but did not believe there were any casualties.