Riots rock Paris suburb for third night

CNN.com

Club-wielding police fought stone-throwing rioters in the northern suburbs of Paris for a second night Monday, with at least five officers suffering injuries during the clashes, authorities said.


The riots began Sunday night, after two teenagers on a motorcycle were killed in a collision with a police car in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, the Val d'Oise police prefecture reported late Monday.


The melees come two years after riots in other Paris suburbs populated largely by immigrants and their French-born children. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking in Beijing while on a visit to China, called for calm while an investigation in the crash is under way.


Rioters set ablaze at least 60 cars, as well as a police station, library and car dealership in Villiers-le-Bel, police said. The clashes had spread across six towns by Monday night, they said. None of the injuries to police were life-threatening, police reported. The number of rioters hurt and the extent of their injuries was unknown.


The 15- and 16-year-old boys killed in the Sunday evening wreck were both sons of African immigrants, police said. They died when their motorbike hit a patrol car in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, police said.
Some residents of the town, which is heavily populated by immigrants, accused the police officers of fleeing the scene without helping the boys. Police said the teens drove through a red light without wearing helmets and on an unregistered bike.


In a statement issued by the Elysee Palace, Sarkozy urged residents to "cool down and let the justice system determine who is responsible for what." But by Monday, the clashes had spread to the nearby towns of Sarcelles, Garges-lhs-Gonesse, Cergy, Ermont and Goussainville. Villiers-le-Bel was not among the districts hit by the weeks of rioting of November 2005, when disaffected youths set thousands of cars ablaze to protest unemployment and discrimination. Those riots were touched off by the deaths of two men of North African descent who were electrocuted while hiding from police in an electrical substation.


Sarkozy served as interior minister during that wave of unrest and provoked controversy by referring to the rioters as "scum" -- language that served only to inflame the vandalism.