Chirac promises action as violence spreads
This follows the urban unrest that has triggered attacks on vehicles, nursery schools and other targets hit central Paris for the first time.
Youths set ablaze nearly 1,300 vehicles and torched businesses, schools and symbols of French authority, including post offices and provincial police stations over the weekend.
The violence took another alarming turn with attacks in the well-guarded French capital. Police said 35 cars were torched, most on the city’s northern and southern edges.
In central Paris, gasoline bombs damaged three cars near Place de la Republique. Residents reported a loud explosion and flames.
“We were very afraid,” said Annie Partouche, 55, who watched the cars burning from her apartment window. “We were afraid to leave the building.”
Police also found a gasoline bomb-making factory in a derelict building in Evry, south of Paris, with over 100 bottles ready to be turned into bombs, another 50 already prepared, as well as fuel stocks and hoods for hiding rioters’ faces, senior Justice Ministry official Jean-Marie Huet said. Police arrested six people, all under 18.
The discovery on Saturday night, he said, shows that gasoline bombs “are not being improvised by kids in their bathrooms.”
Mr Chirac spoke after a security meeting of his top ministers. “The law must have the last word,” Mr Chirac said in his first public address on the violence. Those sowing “violence or fear” will be “arrested, judged and punished”.
“The absolute priority is restoring security and public order,” he said. He said security measures would be reinforced.
The French president had faced criticism from opposition politicians for not publicly speaking about France’s worst civil unrest in more than a decade. His only previous comments came through a spokesman.
From an outburst of anger in suburban Paris housing projects, the violence has fanned out into a nationwide show of disdain for French authority from youths and minorities, most French-born children of Arab and black Africans angered by years of unequal opportunities.
Arsonists burned 1,295 vehicles nationwide overnight on Saturday and yesterday - sharply up from 897 the night before, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said, adding that police made 349 arrests nationwide.
For a second night, a helicopter equipped with spotlights and video cameras combed Paris suburbs and small teams of police chased rioters.
“What we notice is that the bands of youths are, little by little, getting more organised,” arranging attacks through mobile phone text messages and learning how to make gasoline bombs, Mr Hamon said.
Police said copycat attacks are fanning the unrest but had no evidence of separate gangs co-ordinating. Officials said older youths, many already with police records, appear to be teaching younger teens arson techniques.
Unrest extended west to Normandy and south to Nice and Cannes on the Mediterranean coast, with attacks in or around the cities of Lyon, Lille, Marseille and Strasbourg. In all, 3,300 buses, cars and other vehicles have been incinerated in 10 nights, the police spokesman said.
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