PARIS, Nov 17 (AFP) - Three weeks after violence broke out in poor French city suburbs, police said for the first time Thursday that the level of unrest overnight was back to normal.

Here are key dates in the unrest, including the most serious physical incidents since the violence erupted on October 27:

Wednesday, October 19

-- Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who harbours presidential ambitions, declares a "war without mercy" on violence in the suburbs. "I've said they have to be cleaned -- we're going to make them as clean as a whistle," he tells regional police chiefs.

Tuesday, October 25

-- During a highly-publicised visit to Argenteuil, a suburb northwest of the capital, Sarkozy is pelted with stones and bottles as he outlines a new plan to root out crime from the neighbourhood.

Thursday, October 27

-- Two teenagers, Banou, a 15-year-old of Malian background, and Ziad, a 17-year-old of Tunisian origin, flee a police identity check at 5:30pm in the northeast suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. They scale the wall of an electrical relay station and hide near a transformer, but are electrocuted and die around 6pm after touching the high-voltage equipment. A 21-year-old man of Turkish origin with them is seriously hurt.

-- Youths in the suburb, hearing of the deaths, go on a rampage from around 10pm, burning 23 vehicles and vandalising buildings. Hundreds of riot police are targeted by bottles and stones. The violence tails off some four hours later.

Friday, October 28

-- Sarkozy says the two dead teenagers were not being pursued by police.

-- At 9pm, 400 youths clash with outnumbered police in Clichy-sous-Bois, throwing stones, bottles and, in some cases, Molotov cocktails. Twenty-three officers are hurt and their colleagues are forced to fire 'flash-balls' -- big rubber projectiles meant to stun -- to push back mobs.

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