Riots erupted in the western French city of Nantes on Tuesday after police shot dead a young driver, who tried to avoid a checkpoint. Groups of young rioters, some armed with molotov cocktails, clashed with police and burned cars and a part of a shopping center in the Breil neighborhood. Violence also broke out in two other sensitive areas, Dervallieres and Malakoff, where vehicles were also set on fire. The riots ended in the early hours of Wednesday after police sent in reinforcements. The circumstances in which the man was killed are being investigated by the police. The incident occurred around 8:30pm (18:30 GMT) when police stopped a vehicle over an infraction, local police chief Jean-Christophe Bertrand said. The young man, in his early 20s, hit a policeman as he reversed his car away from the control point, prompting another officer to open fire, wounding him fatally, according to a police source. The identity of the driver was "not clear and officers received orders to bring the driver to the police station." The driver then hit and slightly injured a police officer, he added. "One of his colleagues then fired, hitting the young man who unfortunately died," he said. He was hit in the carotid artery and declared dead on arrival at hospital, police sources said. National police are investigating to clarify "the facts and determine in what circumstances the policeman used his weapon," said Pierre Sennes, the public prosecutor for Nantes. Steven, 24, who lives in the area, told an AFP journalist that he had "heard explosions" and headed to investigate. "I saw everything burning. There were fires in the bins, the cars. They were breaking everything. It lasted ages," he said, adding that things later calmed down. The Breil neighborhood was already on high alert after an incident last week possibly involving a military weapon, according to a source close to the case. The French government on Wednesday called for calm. "Im appealing for absolute calm, as the rule of law will be completely respected," Frances Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told RTL radio.