Crisis as Paris burns for another night

FRANCE'S government was under mounting pressure yesterday to regain control of the situation around Paris as youths opened fire on police and set 300 cars ablaze in overnight rioting in what is now a week of serious disorder.

Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, held a series of crisis meetings yesterday amid increasing criticism of the government for its failure to control the escalating violence which began last Thursday in the northern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois after two teenagers of North African origin were electrocuted in an electricity sub-station. The violence has since spread to at least 20 impoverished suburbs around the capital.

Locals say the two teenagers took refuge in the sub-station because they were being pursued by police. Officials have denied this.

Mr de Villepin said yesterday: "The Republican State will not back down. Order and justice in our country will have the last word."

Four shots were fired at police and fire officers in four different suburbs without causing injuries. In the northern suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois gangs of youths besieged a police station, threw petrol bombs and set fire to a primary school and a Renault car dealership. In neighbouring Blanc-Mesnil, a gymnasium was burned down and a French television truck was overturned and torched. Sixty firemen were called out to fight the blaze, one of whom received burns to the face after being hit by a Molotov cocktail lobbed from a car. Several fire engines were also damaged.

Two live rounds were fired in the town of La Courneuve and fire fighters in Saint-Denis and Noisy-le-Sec were also shot at.

Late on Wednesday afternoon, a 40-strong gang of hooded youths rampaged through a shopping centre in Bobigny looting and vandalising shops.

In Antony in the Hauts-de-Seine region, vehicles were set ablaze and the police station was bombarded with petrol bombs.

The Paris fire department reported receiving "hundreds of calls" to deal with blazing cars and dustbins. Police said a total of 315 cars had been incinerated.

Officials said at least nine people had been injured and 41 people had been arrested on Wednesday night.

Francois Masanet, secretary general of the French police union, described the situation as "dramatic" and warned that violence could escalate.

Mr de Villepin presented a united front yesterday with his interior minister and arch rival Nicolas Sarkozy after critics accused the pair of trying to score political points off each other over the crisis in the run up to presidential elections in 2007. Both cancelled overseas trips on Wednesday to deal with the unrest at home.

Announcing a plan to provide emergency aid to the country's poor suburbs, Mr de Villepin said measures will be presented to parliament before the end of the month to increase urban renovation, create support for teachers and police, and provide assistance help to young people seeking training and jobs.

The families of the two teenagers, Traore Bouna, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, who died last week met with Mr Sarkozy yesterday after refusing the minister's invitation to a previous meeting. As he left the meeting, the father of Zyed Benna said he was "satisfied" with the interview, saying that Mr Sarkozy had assured him that "light would be shed" on his son's death.

Mr Sarkozy, who had launched a controversial crackdown on crime in France's troubled suburbs only a few days before the riots began, has been widely accused of fanning the violence with what critics called his "war-like language" after he described troublemakers as "scum" and pledged to "clean out" tough neighbourhoods.

Mr Sarkozy defended his strong-arm tactics before the National Assembly on Wednesday, telling MPs that tough law and order policies were not to blame for the violence.

"I am convinced that a number of acts of urban violence would never have occurred in our country if so many hoodlums had not thought that one could burn one's neighbour's car with impunity," he said.

The riots have focused attention on the country's sink estates - the rundown suburbs which ring many of its big cities and which France's immigration policy has helped turn into ghettos inhabited by poor immigrants.

France has a Muslim population of about five million - Western Europe's largest - and mainly of North African origin. They suffer from discrimination in housing, education and jobs. Drug dealing and petty crime are often rife on such estates where even police hesitate to enter.

Commentators noted yesterday that French politicians are finally being forced to wake up to the fact that people in these areas have been living in a state of chronic tension for years. The deaths of the two teenagers last week appears to have been the final straw.

But the sight of bearded men urging rioters to calm down in the name of Islam on Monday has also triggered a debate about whether Muslim radicals were exploiting the frustration of the youths.

Bruno Gollnisch, a leader of the anti- immigrant National Front, said: "The supposed mediation of big brothers [community leaders] crying out Allah Akbar [God is Greatest] is one sign among many of the capitulation of the legitimate authorities."

Jean-Louis Borloo, the minister for social cohesion, said the government must react "firmly", but added that France must also acknowledge its failure to deal with anger simmering in poor suburbs for decades.

"We cannot hide the truth: that for 30 years we have not done enough," he said.