Police shot at as riots spread to 20 towns

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.

Youths ignored an appeal for calm from President Jacques Chirac, whose government worked feverishly to fend off a political crisis amid criticism that it has ignored problems in neighbourhoods heavily populated by first and second-generation North African and Muslim immigrants.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called a string of emergency meetings with cabinet ministers throughout the day.