Paris riots continue after two die
Police detained 14 people yesterday after a second night of rioting that broke out in a working-class Paris suburb following the deaths of two youths who were electrocuted while trying to evade police, officials said.
Hundreds of angry youths torched parked cars and threw rocks at police overnight in Clichy-sous-Bois, north of the capital, lightly injuring 15 officers and a journalist, officials said.
Mobile police units were called in after assailants opened fire on a police riot vehicle, and restored order around 2am. About 300 police were remaining on site until further notice, officials said.
Dozens of local residents held a peaceful march after daybreak yesterday between City Hall and the electrical transformer where the youths died seeking cover on Thursday evening.
The regional government said about 400 youths took part in the rioting overnight, but city officials insisted that estimate was too high.
Major French TV networks led their afternoon newscasts with images of the violence, showing officers firing tear gas and rowdy youths throwing rocks and overturning large rubbish bins.
Nineteen people were arrested. Five were later released, officials said.
At yesterday’s march, Mayor Claude Dilain called for calm, urging the public to “remain dignified” amid lingering anger over the deaths of the 15- and 17-year-old boys.
About a dozen teens, wearing T-shirts with the words ”Dead for Nothing” written on them, marched at the front as the demonstrators walked past a string of charred vehicles.
Deputy Mayor Olivier Klein said: “We are all in shock.”
“Unfortunately, many of our youths face tough social situations, and it is true that the deaths of these two other youths upsets them a lot,” he added. “The anger and sadness are legitimate but must not translate into acts of violence.”
A first rampage broke out on Thursday night after youths attacked firefighters called in to help the two victims and a third youth who was later hospitalised with serious burns.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said police denied having chased the two youths and had arrived in the area to investigate an attempted robbery.
State prosecutor Francois Molins, who is investigating the incident, said the youths had fled police on the mistaken idea that they were being pursued.
“The important element is what the third youth said,” Molins told reporters. “Some others began running and started saying that police were coming, and that triggered the youths to flee.”
“They thought they were being chased, when they weren’t,” he added.
Sarkozy has made cracking down on crime a priority. This week, he announced new measures to deploy thousands of riot police to the country’s toughest neighbourhoods and equip police night patrols with video cameras.
