Marseille, France, has been engulfed in riots for nearly a week following a fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old Muslim man during an altercation with police.

Rebel News was on the scene of a vandalized Volkswagen dealership to capture the aftermath of the mass rioting that took place on Saturday, July 1.

We came across this dealership after spotting it on social media.

⚡️Volkswagen dealership getting looted in Marseille, France pic.twitter.com/UjmPORlbZO

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) July 1, 2023

The extent of the damage is striking—doors crashed, windows boarded up, and another vehicle used to block access. A lone individual stands guard.

We spoke with the owner, who provided detailed information about what happened. According to her, a group of young individuals, some as young as 12 or 13, forcibly entered the Volkswagen dealership and managed to obtain the keys to all the cars. They proceeded to drive the vehicles off the lot, stealing 42 cars.

Interestingly, the owner revealed that 20 of the stolen cars were recovered the following day and found abandoned on the road. 

They weren't even sold.

These kids simply took the cars for a joyride. They were not driven by monetary gain, but rather sought to challenge authority through acts of defiance and theft.

The owner expressed her astonishment, claiming she had never witnessed anything like this. While altercations with the police have occurred in the past, they never escalated to this point.

The future of this Volkswagen dealership remains uncertain.

It's like so many of the riots in American cities where Black Lives Matter activists violently protested an African American being shot — but they protested by burning down their own neighbourhood.

This Volkswagen dealership has nothing to do with the government or the police.

It is a hard-working family business attempting to sell cars in a neighbourhood with little commercial activity. They now find themselves frightened and victimized; we can only speculate if they will remain in this area.

For more stories from Marseille and updates on the ongoing riots, please visit FranceOnFire.com.

And if you think this is important citizen journalism, you can even chip in a few bucks on that site to help cover our travel costs.