Explosion of violence in France: 2nd night of riots in Paris
x - 27.11.2007 17:07
Paris - More than 60 police officers were injured, five of them seriously, when bands of youths rioted late on Monday for a second consecutive night in the suburbs of Paris after two minority teenagers riding a motor bike died when a police car crashed into them.
Public buildings, cop shops, cars, were set on fire by angry youths. A police station has been attacked with petrol bombs and guns.
This incident oocures in the context of national mobilsations by french civil movements over the last few weeks and ongoing clashes between strikers and police around France.
cop shop
Five of the injured police officers were reported in serious condition, including one riot police officer 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 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 criticised 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.
VIDEOS
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68072V5iEx4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWqbXdaDRT4
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