Mayor blames gangs for violence

2008-06-21 22:23

Paris - Paris Mayor Bernard Delanoe blamed "organised gangs" on Saturday for clashes overnight near the Eiffel Tower between police and high school students celebrating the end of their final exams.

Twenty-nine people were arrested, and 22 kept in custody, after the unrest in the Champ de Mars park in the well-to-do Seventh District that pitted police firing tear gas against "250 to 300 youths".

About a dozen neighbourhood shops were damaged, and two police officers slightly injured, said Alain Gardere, who is in charge of neighbourhood policing.

"I most firmly condemn the violence overnight that was carried out by organised gangs around the Champ de Mars where many young people had peacefully gathered after their baccalaureate exams," Delanoe said.

"Such actions of violence must be punished with the greatest severity," added the Socialist mayor of the French capital.

The unrest broke out on the eve of the Fete de la Musique, an all-night summer solstice party that pulls big crowds onto Parisian streets for more than 500 open-air concerts.

Gardere pointed a finger at "troublemakers" mingling among the 4 000 to 7 000 high school graduates on the Champ de Mars's sprawling grass terrace who began hurling bottles at the police.

Some 30 police officers were seen by an AFP reporter charging the youths with tear gas. Some youths then tried to set fire to rubbish bins and trees, before they were pushed back.

"Photos were taken and investigations will be diligent," said Gardere.

He alleged that many of the perpetrators had come from suburbs around Paris - districts best known for rough public housing projects, high unemployment and large immigrant populations.

"These young people had faces concealed with headscarves and hoods," he said.

- AFP