Dozens injured as youths again riot in Paris suburbs (Roundup)

Nov 27, 2007, 9:05 GMT

Rioters in front of a burning garbage truck throw stones at the Police in Villiers Le Bel, near Paris, France, 26 November 2007. For the second night groups of youngsters burnt garbage cans and cars protesting over the death of two teenagers who collided with a police car while riding a motorcycle. EPA/MAXPPP / PHILIPPE DE POULPIQUET

Paris - More than 60 police officers were injured, five of them seriously, when bands of youths rioted late Monday for a second consecutive night in the suburbs of Paris after the deaths of two minority teenagers, French media reported Tuesday.

Five of the injured were reported in serious condition, including one riot policeman who was shot in the shoulder with a high-calibre rifle.

In addition, 63 vehicles and five buildings, including a library and two schools, were set on fire as the unrest spread to six suburban ghettos north of Paris 24 hours after two youths, aged 15 and 16, were killed when their off-road motorcycle was struck by a police car in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel.

In two days of rioting, about 100 police officers were injured and nearly 100 cars and a dozen buildings set on fire or otherwise damaged by bands of roving youths.

The events are disturbingly similar to 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.

Opposition politicians wasted no time in blaming the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy for the renewed rioting.

'No one has learned anything from (the riots of) 2005,' Socialist lawmaker Arnaud Montebourg said Tuesday on Canal Plus television, and criticized the centre-right government for a 'disengagement from public services.'

On Monday, more than 100 hooded youths tossed paving stones and Molotov cocktails at riot police near the site of the accident in Villiers-le-Bel. 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, 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.

The violence broke out again despite calls for calm by both the families of the victims and Sarkozy, currently on a visit to China.

Earlier Monday, a silent march in Villiers-le-Bel was held in memory of the two youths killed in the accident. Lawyers for the victims' families said they would file a court complaint to determine the cause of the accident.

According to investigators, witnesses said that the motorcycle on which the two teenagers were riding was travelling very fast and that the police car was unable to avoid the fatal collision.

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.'

An elderly man, who appeared very nervous, said that the area where the two youths were killed Sunday was populated primarily by immigrants. 'This is a dangerous area,' he said. 'We're not in France here any more. This is a war and it can go on for a long time.'

And then, using a term Sarkozy employed to describe the rioters in 2005, the man said, 'It's always the same scum.'