Uneasy calm returns to France
2005-11-14 10:25
Paris - The French government was to meet on Monday on whether to extend a state of emergency in a number of places to tackle more than two weeks of urban unrest as the number of attacks was dropping nationwide.
An overnight curfew was still in force in 40 municipalities and authorities in the southeastern city of Lyon banned public gatherings in order to head off a repeat of clashes in the historic centre.
Police said no incident was reported in France's third-largest city on Sunday afternoon but 15 cars were set ablaze during the day and three people who were carrying petrol were detained for questioning.
By 04:00 on Monday 271 vehicles had gone up in flames and 112 people had been detained for questioning across France, according to figures released by the police, compared with 315 torched vehicles and 161 arrests the previous night.
Five police officers were wounded during the 18th night of unrest, against two overnight Saturday.
'A major easing-off '
Since the start of the unrest 2,764 arrests have been made and 375 people have been sent to prison.
The European Union pledged to release $58m for urban programmes to improve conditions in France's riot-hit areas, the EU executive president Jose Manuel Barroso said before a meeting with French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin late Sunday.
National police chief Michel Gaudin said there was "a major easing-off.
"Things should begin to get rapidly back to normal," he added.
According to figures compiled before the riots by the police intelligence service RG, some 28 000 cars were burnt in the first 10 months of the year - making an average of 650 a week, most of which were destroyed at weekends.
The centre of Paris remained calm after the authorities banned public meetings there on Saturday, fearing an influx of youth gangs from the suburbs. In the end there was no sign of trouble, and the capital's outskirts were also relatively quiet.
A government official also spoke of cautious optimism. "We were expecting a hot night, but it was not as busy as he feared. We feared problems in Paris but there were none. The slowdown is now established, and things should be easier to control," the senior official said.