Paris riots 'under control'
Youths torched parked cars in a northern Paris suburb yesterday, but authorities said tensions were simmering down yesterday after two nights of rioting and clashes with police.
Lingering unrest in Clichy-sous-Bois was “under control” after rioting broke out on Thursday and Friday in anger over the deaths of two youths while fleeing police, regional official Serge Jacob said.
Authorities detained nine youths on yesterday morning for throwing objects at police or carrying Molotov cocktails, regional officials said.
“These activities were much more sporadic than in the two previous nights,” Jacob said. “It wasn’t at all the same phenomenon.”
Officials credited the presence of a 300-strong police contingent and local officials’ calls for calm for helping to reduce the violence, which mainly involved youths setting fire to about 15 parked cars.
Dozens of local residents held peaceful marches on Saturday between City Hall and an electrical transformer where the two youths were electrocuted to death while seeking cover from police they believed were chasing them Thursday evening.
Authorities said police had arrived in the area to respond to an attempted robbery and were not chasing the youths who died.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking on prime-time television yesterday, said he hoped a full investigation now under way would “bring to light” the circumstances of the youths’ deaths.
“When two youths aged 15 and 17 die like that, it’s a drama – and we owe the truth to everybody,” he said on TF1. He said he would make public “all the elements” of the judicial investigation.
“The current elements available to me indicate that the police officers were not chasing these youths,” Sarkozy said, adding that he planned to visit the area Monday and meet with the victims’ parents.
