A woman has been left with serious burns after a group of teenagers set fire to a bus in the French city of Marseille.

Mourners marched silently through the neglected Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois today to mark the deaths a year ago of two teenagers that ignited three weeks of riots in largely immigrant housing projects across France.

Attackers, some carrying handguns, torched buses in three overnight attacks in suburban Paris, as the nation faced the one-year anniversary of riots in France’s down-and-out, heavily immigrant neighbourhoods.

Riot police were out in force in a troubled suburb of Paris early today, a day after youths hurled petrol bombs at buildings, pelted officers and took to the streets with baseball bats.

Disadvantaged youths “deserve to be helped, recognised and encouraged,” French President Jacques Chirac said as he met today with a group of successful young entrepreneurs from the low-income neighbourhoods where rioting broke out this month.

The French parliament gave its final approval to extending a state of emergency, even as the country was returning to an “almost normal situation” after three weeks of rioting and unrest.

President Jacques Chirac has called for a collective fight against racism in response to France’s worst unrest in almost 40 years, saying discrimination poisons society.

The unrest across France was the sign of a “profound malaise” that must be met with firmness, but also fairness, President Jacques Chirac said.

Paris escaped renewed urban violence overnight but 374 vehicles were set alight elsewhere in France, according to police reports.

Some 3,000 police fanned out around Paris today ahead of feared weekend attacks on high-profile targets such as the Eiffel Tower, as the number of vehicles torched overnight rose slightly elsewhere in France, according to officials.

POLICE tightened security in central Paris yesterday with riot forces and bomb squads placed along the Champs-Elysees.

Residents from riot-torn suburbs were to march in Paris today – Armistice Day, marking the end of WWI – waving white handkerchiefs to call for an end to more than two weeks of violence.

FRANCE announced plans yesterday to impose curfews on rundown suburbs hit by violence to try to halt almost two weeks of unrest in which one man has been killed, police said yesterday.

Rioting by French youths spread to 300 towns overnight and a man hurt in the violence died of his wounds – the first fatality in 11 days of unrest, police said today. Governments worldwide urged their citizens to be careful in France.

French President Jacques Chirac called a security meeting of his top ministers tonight after urban rioting spread – with arsonists striking from the Mediterranean to the German border and into central Paris for the first time.

Riots which have rocked France for the past 10 days reached central Paris for the first time today in an orgy of destruction and violence.

SMALL, mobile groups of youths hit Paris’s riot-shaken suburbs with waves of arson attacks, torching hundreds of cars, as unrest entered its second week yesterday and spread to other towns in France.

Small, mobile groups of youths torched hundreds more cars near Paris today, and the violence and arson attacks that have shaken the capital’s suburbs for a week spread to other French towns.

An uneasy calm fell over Paris’ riot-hit suburbs today after a week of unrest by gangs of youths shooting at police and firefighters, starting fires and attacking symbols of the French state.

RAMPAGING youths shot at police and firefighters yesterday after burning car dealerships and public buses and hurling rocks at commuter trains, as eight days of riots over poor conditions in Paris-area housing projects spread to 20 towns.

The French government faced mounting pressure today as suburban unrest took on dangerous new momentum, with shots fired at police and fire crews as they battled youths who torched car dealerships and public buses and hurled rocks at commuter trains.

France’s government went into crisis mode in a bid to deal with escalating riots in the suburbs of Paris.

PRESIDENT Jacques Chirac, intervening after six nights of rioting in suburban Paris, called yesterday for calm and said authorities will use a firm hand to curtail what may become a “dangerous situation”.

French President Jacques Chirac called for calm and a firm hand today in response to six nights of rioting in Paris’ troubled suburbs, warning of a “dangerous situation".

Unrest spread across troubled suburbs around Paris in a sixth night of violence as police clashed with angry youths and scores of vehicles were set on fire in at least nine towns.

FRENCH youths rioted in a Paris suburb for the fifth night running early yesterday, raising fresh questions about Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s “zero tolerance” policy toward the violence.

Police made 12 arrests and an officer was slightly injured in a fifth night of unrest in a Paris suburb where cars and rubbish were again set alight.

Youths torched parked cars in a northern Paris suburb yesterday, but authorities said tensions were simmering down yesterday after two nights of rioting and clashes with police.

Police detained 14 people yesterday after a second night of rioting that broke out in a working-class Paris suburb following the deaths of two youths who were electrocuted while trying to evade police, officials said.