PARIS - Dozens of youths clashed with police and set fire to buildings in a Paris suburb on Sunday after two teenagers were killed in a crash with a police car. The pair were riding on a stolen motorcycle when the accident happened on Sunday in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, a police union source said.France's worst urban unrest in 40 years broke out in the northeastern Paris suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois in November 2005, after two teenagers died electrocuted in an electricity sub-station after apparently fleeing police.
The circumstances in this case, however, were different. "It was not a chase but apparently a traffic accident," a police source said.
| Involving a couple of thieves. Youts on a stolen cycle. Youts most likely not named Jaques and Pierre. It's all society's fault, of course. |
Large numbers of police were sent to the town from neighbouring departments and Paris. "We made immediately available for a dramatic situation in which two young people died and there has been damage and thefts," a local authority official said. "There are small groups of vandals who have started to loot shops," the official said, adding that a young person had been arrested.
The local authority said seven policemen and a fireman were injured. A police officer who went to the scene was attacked by youths who had gathered there. Several rubbish bins were torched and the burned out wreckage of a car was visible on French television footage.