Youths torch buses around Paris

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.

The overnight incidents left no injuries, but they panicked passengers who were forced off the buses, prompted bus drivers to refuse risky routes, and raised fears of violence around today’s anniversary of the 2005 unrest.

Last year’s riots raged through housing projects in suburbs nationwide, springing in part from anger over entrenched discrimination against immigrants and their French-born children, many of them Muslims from former French colonies in Africa.

Despite an influx of funds and promises since then, disenchantment still thrives in those communities.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a leading contender for next year’s presidential elections whose hardline stance has angered many in the suburbs, vowed to track down those who set the buses on fire.

“The people responsible should know that we are after them…and they will face severe punishment,” he said at a news conference in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, where he was meeting with interior ministers from five other European countries.

About 10 attackers, five armed with handguns, stormed a bus in Montreuil, east of Paris, this morning and forced the passengers off, the RATP transport authority said. They then drove off and set the bus on fire. The bus driver was treated for shock, the RATP said.

The handguns were unusual. Last year’s rioters were armed primarily with crowbars, stones, sticks and petrol bombs.

Late yesterday, three attackers forced passengers off another bus in Athis-Mons, south of Paris, and tossed a Molotov cocktail inside, police officials said. The driver managed to put out the fire.

In yet another attack last night, between six and 10 youths herded passengers off a bus in the western suburb of Nanterre and set it alight.

These attacks, and recent ambushes on police, have raised concern about the changing character of suburban violence, which appears more premeditated than last year’s spontaneous outcry and no longer restricted to the housing projects.

Regional authorities said the Nanterre bus line, which passes near Paris’ financial district, La Defense, was not considered a high-risk area.

Francois Saglier, director of bus services at the RATP, said the attacks happened “without prior warning and not necessarily in neighbourhoods considered difficult”.

The RATP was to meet unions today to determine which bus routes would be changed or limited in response to the unrest. Unions demanded that the RATP allow drivers to stop work in case of imminent danger.

Sarkozy said he would meet with public transportation officials and asked police to “mobilise all resources” to protect the transit system.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin urged a swift, stern response, but also said France should “revitalise” troubled neighbourhoods.

France’s inability to better integrate minorities and recent suburban violence are becoming major political issues as the campaign heats up for next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who is considering whether to run in next year’s presidential election, said Thursday that recent attacks demonstrate “a desire to kill”.

“Some individuals are looking for provocation, and sometimes go further,” she said on i-Tele television. She acknowledged people facing unemployment and overcrowded housing “have trouble finding their place” in society.

The three weeks of riots were sparked by the deaths on October 27, 2005, of two young boys of African descent, who were electrocuted in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois, north-east of Paris, while hiding from police.