Three police hurt in more Paris suburbs clashes

EVRY, France, June 6, 2006 (AFP) – Three police officers and two emergency workers were hurt in clashes with scores of youth in a southern Paris suburb late Monday, a police source said.

Molotov cocktails and stones were thrown at the police who responded with teargas and disabling flash-balls during the unrest involving 50-100 youths at the Grande Borne housing estate in the town of Grigny.

The violence lasted some 45 minutes as masked youths set one car ablaze and destroyed phone boxes and bus shelters.

No one was arrested in the violence and the injuries were said to be light.

The unrest follows similar clashes in two northern Paris suburbs last week and raises fears of a repeat of last November’s nationwide riots.

Run-down housing estates in both suburbs were the epicentre of last year’s riots which spread to some 300 high-immigration French towns, and relations between police and local youths remains extremely tense.

Last year’s nationwide riots were fuelled by anger at racial discrimination, a lack of educational and employment prospects and police harassment.

Some 10,000 vehicles were torched and more than 3,200 people arrested in three weeks of unrest, which prompted the government to declare a national
state of emergency.

Subject: French news