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France sees worst night of violence
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-07 20:48
France's national police chief Monday said overnight riots sent a "shock
wave" across France, as youths injured three dozen officers and burned more than
1,400 vehicles in the worst night of violence since the unrest began.
Rescue workers extinguish a fire in a burning car
in Argenteuil, west of Paris, Sunday night Nov. 6, 2005. French President
Jacques Chirac promised arrest, trials and punishment Sunday for those sowing
'violence or fear' across France . [AP]
Apparent copycat attacks spread to other European cities for the first time,
with five cars torched outside Brussels' main train station, police in the
Belgian capital said.
Australia, Austria and Britain became the latest countries to advise their
citizens to exercise care in France, joining the United States and Russia in
warning tourists to stay away from violence-hit areas.
Clashes around France left 36 police injured, and vandals burned 1,408
vehicles overnight Sunday-Monday, setting a new high for overnight arson and
violence since the rioting started Oct. 27, national police chief Michel Gaudin
said.
The mayhem started as an outburst of anger in suburban Paris housing projects
and has fanned out nationwide among disaffected youths, mostly of Muslim or
African origin, to become France's worst civil unrest in over a decade.
Attacks overnight were reported in 274 towns, and police made 395 arrests,
Gaudin said.
"This spread, with a sort of shock wave spreading across the country, shows
up in the number of towns affected," Gaudin said, noting that the violence
appeared to be sliding away from its flash point in the Parisian suburbs and
worsening elsewhere.
It was the first time police were injured by weapons fire amid signs that
rioters were deliberately seeking out clashes with police, officials said.
Among the injured police, 10 were injured by youths firing fine-grain
birdshot in a late night clash in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny, national
police spokesman Patrick Hamon said. Two were hospitalized but their lives were
not in danger. One was wounded in the neck, the other in the legs.
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