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French police, rioters clash

— Photo: AP

ON THE BOIL: Riot police during clashes with young residents of Villiers-le-Bel, a northern Paris suburb, late on Monday.

Villers le Bel (north of Paris): Fears grew on Tuesday that the rioting which began two nights ago in this predominantly immigrant suburb just north of Paris might spread to other disaffected and underprivileged areas in a repeat of the massive urban riots that shook France in October 2005.

For the second night running, bands of youths went on the rampage, pillaging and looting shops and offices, setting fire to cars and public buildings and pelting police with stones and Molotov cocktails. Over 80 policemen were injured at least five of them seriously and scores of people were arrested.

Tension in the township remained extremely high on Tuesday with streets strewn with broken bottles, shattered shop fronts and the remains of burnt-out cars. Rioters burnt the local library, nursery school and the police station.

Authorities said guns were used against police and police unions described the violence as worse than the rioting that hit French cities in November 2005 — also sparked by the deaths of two youths.

According to police, this is the first time rioters have used firearms in such urban riots.

Eighty-two officers were injured on Monday night, four of them seriously after being hit by buckshot from hunting weapons. The Synergie police union said the youths had used “urban guerrilla” tactics against security forces.

“Two things are cause for anxiety: signs that the violence is spreading to neighbouring areas, which have already had their share of burned cars, and the almost systematic use of fire-arms against police,” said Douhane Mohamed of the Synergie police union.

“We are coming close to a catastrophic scenario with the use of firearms against police,” said another police union UNSA.

Some 300 youths, crouching behind trash cans, hurled objects at riot police who fired rubber bullets and tear gas. Young rioters in the nearby towns of Sarcelles, Garges-les-Gonesse, Cergy, Ermont and Goussainville were armed with petrol bombs, bottles filled with acid and baseball bats, police said.

Most of the rioters are either immigrant blacks or North African Arabs from France’s former colonies in Africa.

They say they suffer from terrible discrimination in terms of jobs, education and housing and that the €1 billion the government said it was going to sink into the immigrant housing estates had not materialised.

Given the gravity of the situation, President Nicolas Sarkozy called an emergency Cabinet meeting for Wednesday when he returns from a state visit to China.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon visited the scene on Tuesday morning and announced a beefed up security presence for the night to come.

“While justice is taking its course, nothing can justify the violence that took place last night. These acts are unacceptable, they are intolerable. People who fire guns at police are criminals and will be treated as such,” he said.

The riots broke out when two teenagers aged 15 and 16 died after they crashed into a police patrol car at a crossroads near one of the housing estates in Villiers Le Bel. Neither was wearing helmets and they died of massive head injuries. Rumours quickly spread that the police had either deliberately hit the boys or failed to give assistance to persons in danger.

An initial investigation appeared to confirm the police version of Sunday’s incident, according to which the two teenagers — neither wearing a crash helmet — were riding a motorbike that careered into their car. But the family of the two youths and some local people appeared convinced that the police had caused the accident and fled the scene without treating the two victims.

Police and politicians say the French suburbs remain a “tinderbox” two years after the 2005 riots, which exposed France’s failure to integrate its large black and Arab population, the children and grandchildren of immigrants from its African colonies.

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