France on edge with 70,000 police deployed for unrest as authorities probe suspected terror attack near Paris

A suspected terrorist attack near Paris on Friday added to the tensions across as the nation prepares for more potential violence on Saturday.

Seventy thousand law enforcement officers, along with helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons, are set to be deployed across France as President Emmanuel Macrons government tries to ward off another weekend of violent protests.

"The strategy adopted for the coming days is to ban protests requested by individuals or groups with no legitimate authority," Macron said ahead of the weekend, after canceling his planned trip to Nigeria and Senegal originally scheduled for next week.

"The rules are simple and I think they're just common sense," said Macron. "The general recommendation is that there should be no demonstrations in the coming days."

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"Where trade unions submit requests to hold demonstrations, prefects will examine them in accordance with the law," he added, "but alternative routes will be proposed" to protect city centers, businesses and public buildings.

Meanwhile, adding to security concerns, a suspected terrorist attack occurred in the city of Trappes, west of Paris. A 39-year-old man was arrested by police after one person was killed and four others, including a 12-year-old girl, were wounded in what was originally said to be a "relatively random" shooting. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has since told local media: "The motive may be racist. The investigation is ongoing, but this is clearly a terrorist crime."

The AFP reported the suspect appeared to fire randomly from a vehicle, with the mayor telling reporters the dead victim and at least one of the wounded were "of African origin." Macron said "the nation is standing with" the victims of this "terrible ordeal."

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Ahead of Saturday's protests and after acknowledging that police had "lost control" during last weekend's unrest, Nuñez, the interior minister, said his ministry is "ready for tomorrow. We will be extremely vigilant, extremely firm, and we will let absolutely nothing pass."

Reuters reports that the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France, or UNEF, one of the nations oldest student unions, has said their planned rallies will go on as scheduled, despite police rejecting their permit requests. Police have so far only approved a union demonstration in Paris, reports Reuters, while denying requests from UNEF and the "Yellow Vest" movement, an anti-establishment force that first emerged in 2018.

also took aim at those he says are behind the violence: "Last Saturday we had political and seditious acts by ultra-left groups whose aim is to bring down the Republic," he said.

Earlier this week, Fabian Vahemelryck, Secretary General of the Alliance Police Nationale union, said political figures deserved blame because of "those who excuse the inexcusable, justify violence and prefer to overwrite police officers rather than condemn those who attack them."

He also accused the "state that abandons its police officers in the face of increasingly uninhibited violence, while demanding that they accept, remain silent and continue to hold the line."

Major French institutions, like the Louvre and the M