Paris, 31 May (AKI) - Four policemen were injured, seven people arrested and vehicles set alight in fresh rioting mainly by French youths of Arab and African origin that broke out overnight in several high-rise suburbs of the French capital, Paris, news reports said on Wednesday. The disturbances followed clashes on Monday and Tuesday between scores of hooded youngsters and police in the Montefermeil and Clichy-sous-Bois areas, protesting the introduction last month of "anti-deliquency measures" by Montefermeil's major, Xavier Lemoine. Seven policemen were reported injured in the face-offs.Scores of youths on Monday fought police in the Paris suburb of Montfermeil, and attacked Lemoine's home, rattling the gates and hurling stones at the windows. Police opened fire on the youths, using rubber bullets. Gangs also attacked the town hall, shattering its glass facade and throwing petrol bombs which failed to go off.
Four cars and many rubbish bins were torched. The disturbances persisted into the small hours. Trouble was also reported in the neighbouring suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois - where last year riots were stoked by the accidental electrocution of two teenagers who the rioting youths believed were being chased by police. Tensions have risen in the area since April, when Lemoine introduced a series of so-called anti-deliquency measures that included a ban on gatherings of more than three youths in the centre.
This week's riots are the worst seen in France since last October and November's disturbances in deprived, mainly immigrant populated suburbs of major cities, which highlighted the problems of poverty and ethnic discrimination and prompted the government to introduce a curfew and other emergency measures in affected neighbourhoods.