Youths riot in Paris suburbs after two teens die (1st Lead)

Nov 26, 2007, 9:11 GMT

Paris - At least 21 police officers and firefighters were injured when gangs of youths rioted in four Paris suburbs after two teenagers died when their motorcycle collided with a police car, police sources said Monday.

Dozens of youths attacked police stations, ransacked stores and set cars ablaze late Sunday in a disturbing echo of the three weeks of urban unrest that swept through poor suburbs throughout France in November 2005.

That rioting was also provoked by the deaths of two teenagers from another Paris suburb. They were electrocuted when they tried to hide from police in a power station.

The riots erupted Sunday evening after two youths of African origin, aged 15 and 16, were killed when the off-road motorcycle on which they were riding was struck by a police car in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris.

Police said the teens were not wearing helmets, were travelling at high speed, and that the crash occurred after they failed to yield the right of way to the police cruiser.

However, French media reported Monday that the cause of the accident had not been determined and that an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fatalities was ongoing.

After the accident, young people set trash cans and cars on fire. The police station in Villiers-le-Bel was attacked with Molotov cocktails and set on fire, and a police station in neighbouring Arnouville was destroyed.

'They burned the police station, all the cars around it as well,' a resident of Villiers-le-Bel told the daily Le Parisien. 'They broke all the windows of the nearby stores and the train station. The whole neighbourhood was vandalized.'

Two police officers were shot with a shotgun in clashes with the rioters while another officer who attempted to calm the mob was badly beaten, the administration of the departement, or region, of Val- d'Oise said.

An estimated 50 to 100 youths were said to have taken part in the violence, police said.