Paris - At least 50 police officers were injured, three
seriously, when bands of youths rioted late Monday for a second night
in the suburbs of Paris after two minority teens were killed when
their motorcycle was struck by a police car, LCI television reported.
An estimated 100 hooded youths tossed paving stones and Molotov
cocktails at riot police near the site of the collision in the suburb
of Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris. Some sources said that pistols
were used to fire lead shot at police.
Police replied with tear gas and flash-ball projectiles. In some
locations, the youths and police officers engaged in hand-to-hand
combat, with the rioters using trash can lids as shields against
nightsticks, France Info radio said.
In addition, dozens of cars and numerous trash cans were set
ablaze and a number of buildings including a school were damaged in
the violence, which has spread to at least six suburbs around Paris.
The violence broke out again, though the families of the victims
and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, currently on a visit to China,
called for calm.
The unrest began late Sunday after two youths of African origin,
aged 15 and 16, died when their off-road motorcycle collided with a
police cruiser.
Witnesses told investigators that the motorcycle was traveling
very fast and that the police car was unable to avoid the collision.
Some 40 police officers and firefighters were injured in Sunday's
unrest. At least six buildings including two police stations as well
as several dozen cars were torched.
The violence was a disturbing echo of the three weeks of urban
unrest that swept through poor suburbs throughout France in November
2005 after two teenagers from another Paris suburb were electrocuted
while hiding from police.
Residents of Villiers-le-Bel told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that
they feared a new wave of violence by minority youths.
'We heard that they want to burn down City Hall,' one person said.
'We are afraid for our cars.'
Another man said that the area where the two youths were killed
Sunday was populated primarily by immigrants. 'We're not in France
here any more,' he said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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