Tensions flare again in France
VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France - Rampaging youths threw Molotov cocktails and fired buckshot at police in troubled neighborhoods outside Paris on Monday, the second night of violence after two teens were killed in a crash with a police patrol car. Officials said 38 officers were wounded.
Anger focused on police, with residents claiming that officers left the scene of Sunday’s crash without helping the boys - a claim officials cast doubt on but which the police were investigating.
President Nicolas Sarkozy appealed for calm while police braced for more problems, a reminder of the tensions that drove weeks of unrest in 2005 in poor neighborhoods with large minority populations.
Investigators were still trying to piece together what happened in the Sunday afternoon crash in Villiers-le-Bel, a town of public-housing blocks that is home to a mix of Arab, black and white residents in the French capital’s northern suburbs.
Police officials said the teenagers ignored traffic rules and crashed into the police vehicle, and that the motorbike they were riding was unregistered and thus not authorized for use on French roads.
Neither of the boys - ages 15 and 16 - was wearing a helmet as required by law, and the prosecutor’s office said the bike was going at maximum speed.
The internal police-oversight agency opened an inquiry into whether the officers failed to help the teenagers and whether manslaughter charges should be filed, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
An alcohol test showed that neither of the officers had been drinking, and initial inquiries suggested they did not appear to have caused the crash, police said.
The prosecutor, Marie-Therese de Givry, told LCI television the officers called rescue services to the scene.
Villiers-le-Bel was hit by protest Monday for a second night, though the families of the two teenagers called for calm.
A crowd of youths set police barricades on fire and threw stones and Molotov cocktails at officers, who retaliated with tear gas and rubber bullets. In Villiers-le-Bel and surrounding areas, youths set fire to 36 vehicles, the area’s prefecture said.
Youths were seen firing buckshot at police and reporters.
A police-union official said 38 officers were wounded, including three seriously - one of whom had a shoulder wound after a shot from a hunting rifle pierced his bulletproof vest. One reporter also was injured.
Two youths were taken into custody, the prefecture said. Among the buildings targeted by the youths was a library that was set afire.
“The situation is tense, there are a lot of police on the ground to prevent more flare-ups,” said Gaelle James of the Synergie police officers’ union.
In Sunday’s violence, eight people were arrested and 20 police officers were injured, including the town’s police chief, who was beaten in the face after he tried to negotiate with the rioters, police said. One firefighter also was injured.
Also Sunday, witnesses said, police fired rubber pellets at youths. Two police stations were targeted, one with Molotov cocktails. A McDonald’s restaurant was burned, as were about 15 cars and several garbage cans.
Sarkozy, in China on a visit, said: “I want everyone to calm down and let the justice system determine who was responsible.”
Residents drew parallels with the 2005 riots, which were prompted by the deaths of two teens electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police in a suburb northeast of Paris.
A recent study by the state auditor’s office indicated that money poured into poor French suburbs in recent decades had done little to solve problems vividly exposed by the 2005 riots, including discrimination, unemployment and alienation from mainstream society.