29 cops injured in French riots
2005-11-07 08:59
Paris - Youths armed with shot pistols wounded 29 police officers on Sunday as rioting went into an 11th consecutive day in France, said police in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny.
Two of the officers struck by the pellets were said to be seriously wounded after police came under fire during clashes with groups of rioters in Grigny.
Sunday's new round of unrest broke out as President Jacques Chirac broke his silence on the crisis, telling journalists in Paris that the government's "absolute priority is the re-establishment of security and public order".
"The law should have the final word," Chirac said after an emergency meeting of the government's homeland security council.
In what were Chirac's first comments on the unrest, the French president said that he, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and the seven ministers in the homeland security council had "taken a certain number of decisions to reinforce the actions of the police and courts".
"The republic is quite determined to be stronger than those who want to spread violence and fear," Chirac added.
Another outbreak of violence
Villepin said the government would speed up judicial proceedings against those who taking part in the riots, and security forces would be reinforced "wherever it is necessary throughout the country".
Even as the French leaders spoke, new violence had broken out.
Two people were injured on Sunday evening when a group of youths set fire to a bus in Saint Etienne, where bus service was immediately suspended citywide.
Police in Saint Etienne said an elementary school in a tense neighbourhood of the city was burned down on Sunday evening, while farther north, in a suburb of the city of Roanne, youths torched eight lorries in a car park.
Cars and trash bins were also burned on Sunday evening in the cities of Nantes, Orleans and Rennes as police and firefighters braced for another long night of violence and arson.
Rioters mostly minors
The new disturbances came after the unrest had spread on Saturday and Sunday across France, as gangs of youths attacked police and burned cars in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse and other cities.
The turmoil spread for the first time to central Paris where 51 cars were set on fire on Sunday. Police made 30 arrests in the capital.
Nationwide, 1 295 cars were torched overnight on Saturday, and police reported 349 arrests.
TF 1 television reported on Sunday that the rioters were predominantly minors, and that the average age of the nearly 500 people arrested over the preceding 24 hours was 16.
The chaos was set off by anger in France's immigrant community over the deaths of two teenagers as they were apparently evading police on October 27. They tried to hide inside a power transformer and were electrocuted.
A police investigation into the deaths is currently underway. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA