Browse/Search
Unrest rife among immigrants in suburban Paris (2:07)
Rioting continues in suburban Paris over death of two teens (2:10)
RELATED
Gallery: Violence in Paris suburbs
• Frustration and anger fuel unrest
QUICKVOTE
How should French officials handle the continuing violence in Paris suburbs?
Impose curfew
Deploy troops
Withdraw police
or View Results
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
France
Riots
Paris (France)
Nicolas Sarkozy
or Create Your Own
Manage Alerts | What Is This? PARIS, France (CNN) — Parisian suburbs have suffered a seventh straight night of violence as youths set fire to dozens of cars in at least nine areas to the north and east of the French capital.
The disturbances damaged a shopping center, car dealership and primary school as more than 1,000 police were deployed to quell the unrest, which was triggered last week by the deaths of two teenagers.
About 40 vehicles were set ablaze, including two buses, officials said.
In the northeastern suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois, rampaging youths set a Renault dealership on fire and burned at least a dozen cars. A supermarket and local gymnasium were also torched, The Associated Press reported.
In nearby La Courneuve, police said two live bullets were fired at them, France-Info radio reported. No officers were injured.
Police arrested 15 people, bringing the total number of arrests throughout the week to about 100. The majority of those arrested are youths, officials have said.
The head of a police union has proposed establishing a curfew and bringing in the military to help handle the rioting, while some members of the opposition Socialist Party have suggested the police should withdraw from the communities to quell the unrest.
The continuing violence adds pressure to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who cancelled a trip to Canada to tackle the situation and soothe a public row between his ministers over the government’s response.
De Villepin summoned eight ministers to a crisis meeting Wednesday to address the unrest and try to stamp out ministerial squabbling.
The unrest has sparked a war of words between de Villepin and his political rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, ahead of 2007 presidential elections.
De Villepin told parliament Wednesday he had cancelled plans to leave for Canada. And, while demanding punishment for lawbreakers, he used calmer language than that used by Sarkozy, who had called the protesting youths «scum.»
«Let’s avoid stigmatizing areas …. let’s treat petty crime differently to major crime, let’s fight all discrimination with firmness, and avoid confusing a disruptive minority with the vast majority of youngsters who want to integrate into society and succeed,» he said.
Earlier Wednesday, President Jacques Chirac called for calm and warned of a «dangerous situation» in the capital’s suburbs.
«The law must be applied firmly and in a spirit of dialogue and respect,» Chirac told a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. «The absence of dialogue and an escalation of a lack of respect will lead to a dangerous situation.»
«Zones without law cannot exist in the republic,» Chirac said. His remarks were passed on to reporters by government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.
The spokesman said Chirac acknowledged the «profound frustrations» of troubled neighborhoods but said violence was not the answer and that efforts must be stepped up to combat it, AP reported.
On Tuesday night, the unrest spread to at least nine towns in the suburbs north and northeast of Paris.
One of the worst-hit suburbs Tuesday was Aulnay-sous-Bois, where 15 cars were torched and police in riot gear fired tear gas and rubber bullets at gangs of angry youths who threw stones at a firehouse and lobbed Molotov cocktails at a town hall annex, AP reported.
The rioting began last Thursday in Clichy-sous-Bois after two teenagers were accidentally electrocuted and a third was injured while apparently trying to escape from police by hiding in a power substation. Officials have said police were not chasing the boys.
But the original cause has been all but forgotten as residents of other communities — weary of poverty, unemployment and discrimination against the large immigrant and Muslim populations — have vented their frustration.
In some areas, unemployment runs as high as 20 percent — more than twice the national average, de Villepin told lawmakers.
Sarkozy has been criticized by government minister Azouz Begag for calling the protesting youths «scum,» and the Socialists have denounced Sarkozy’s policies. But the interior minister defended his approach.
«I speak with real words,» Sarkozy told Wednesday’s Le Parisien newspaper. «When you fire real bullets at police, you’re not a ‘youth,’ you’re a thug.»
Sarkozy described the social aid provided to the suburbs over the years as a failure.
«We often accepted the unacceptable,» he told Le Parisien. «The reigning order is too often the order of gangs, drugs, traffickers. The neighborhoods are waiting for firmness but also justice» and jobs.
Sarkozy and de Villepin both met Tuesday evening with victims’ relatives, but the unrest spread even as they met.
The two men are locked in an increasingly tense battle to lead the right in the 2007 presidential election.
CNN’s Jim Bittermann contributed to this report