Immigrant riots worry French government

PARIS — A week of rioting that spread to 13 immigrant-dominated towns on the outskirts of Paris prompted French President Jacques Chirac to meet with his Cabinet on Wednesday as young people turned out in several areas for a seventh night of mayhem, setting cars on fire and throwing rocks at police.

The unrest erupted last Thursday night when two Muslim teenagers of African heritage were electrocuted in a power substation while dodging a police checkpoint in the impoverished town of Clichy-sous-Bois northeast of Paris.

A rapid escalation of the violence Tuesday night appeared to shock the French leadership. Gangs set fire to up to 228 vehicles in 13 poor, immigrant towns and communities, according to local police and news media.

Young people attacked a fire station in the northern suburban town of Aulnay-sous-Bois, a vacant social center in the southeastern community of Seine-en-Marne and set fire to cars in Yvelines west of the capital, police said.

Riot police, bunched together behind protective shields, fired rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear-gas canisters in efforts to disperse attackers.

Television footage showed one group of riot policemen pointing guns through the window of an apartment building's door as women and children cowered and ducked.

The violence was contagious in communities of immigrants and second-generation French citizens where unemployment is more than twice the national average, crime is rampant, social services are minimal and residents are packed into the shabby high-rise apartments of subsidized housing.

"This problem is exploding in the face of the government," said Dominique Moisi, deputy director of the French Institute of International Relations. "They have politicized it so much they are making fools of themselves. There's the image of Paris burning and that is very, very bad."

Due to the violence, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin postponed a planned visit to Canada on Wednesday and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who oversees domestic security, canceled a four-day trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan scheduled to begin Sunday, their offices said.

De Villepin and Sarkozy have blamed each other for inaction in a series of nasty public barbs.

The newspaper Libération said the unrest has become a pretext for "a new test of strength" between the two presidential contenders.

The Socialist Party criticized Sarkozy for his hard-line approach toward the poor communities.

Families of the two electrocuted teenagers — one 15 and one 17 — said fear of harassment led the pair to try to hide in a dangerous power substation rather than face police at an identity checkpoint.

Family members said witnesses reported seeing police chasing the teens. French officials denied police were pursuing them.

Many residents of the northern suburban areas where the violence has been most intense are Muslim.

The street fighting threatened to take on religious overtones Sunday, when a police tear-gas canister was thrown inside a mosque where about 700 worshippers were praying.

Local Islamic leaders said they have attempted to persuade local young people — particularly Muslims — to refrain from violence.

French officials said 34 people were detained in Tuesday night's violence.