Second French city hit by unrest

[frigidmagi]

BBC

At least 10 cars have been burned and a fire broke out at a library in Toulouse, southern France, following consecutive nights of rioting in Paris.

There was also more violence in the capital as youths set cars on fire in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Violence broke out there on Sunday after two teenagers died when their motorbike collided with a police car.

Police reinforcements had been deployed in the suburb to counter further riots.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has summoned senior ministers for an emergency security meeting on Wednesday, after he returns from a trip to China.

More than 80 police officers were injured, four of them seriously, in the second night of clashes in Villiers-le-Bel on Monday.

Police say some officers suffered bullet wounds, while others were hurt by stones, fireworks and petrol bombs.


POST-2005 PLEDGES
Introduction of measures for training 50,000 youths in 2007
Vow to crack down on illegal immigration
Funding outlined for community projects in "sensitive areas"
EU offers 50m euros for projects to improve the suburbs
Call for action to help non-whites get fair treatment

Paris riots replayed
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The violence is more intense than during weeks of clashes in the French suburbs in 2005, due to the more frequent use of firearms by rioters, police unions have said.

Relatives of the two dead teenagers, who were both from ethnic minorities, have insisted that police rammed their motorcycle before leaving them to die.

But the initial findings of an internal police probe, which found that police were not to blame, sparked anger in Villiers-le-Bel.

'Criminals'

Police say the motorcycle was going at top speed and was not registered for street use, while the two boys - who have been named only as Moushin, 15, and Larami, 16 - were not wearing helmets and had been ignoring traffic rules.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who visited the scene on Tuesday, called the rioters "criminals" and said nothing could justify the attacks.

"Those who shoot at policemen, those who beat a police officer almost to death are criminals and must be treated as such," he was quoted by AFP news agency as telling parliament.

A burnt-out library in Villiers-le-Bel, 27 November 2007
A library and a nursery school went up in flames in Villiers-le-Bel.

Rioting had spread on Monday from Villiers-le-Bel to other areas in the north Paris suburbs.

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has said the riots were organised and criminals were using youngsters to lure away police while they pillaged shops.

The 2005 unrest, also sparked by the deaths of two youths, spread from a nearby suburb of Paris to other cities and continued for three weeks, during which more than 10,000 cars were set ablaze and 300 buildings firebombed.

Mr Sarkozy was heavily criticised at the time after he called for crime-ridden neighbourhoods to be "cleaned with a power hose" and described violent elements as "gangrene" and "rabble".

The BBC's Alasdair Sandford says that although plenty of money has been poured into areas like Villiers le Bel that seems irrelevant when tension and resentment between young people and the police is so strong.