French police 'facing guns' in Paris riots

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was today preparing to fly back to the country for an emergency security meeting on the escalating Paris riots that have injured scores of police.

A senior police union official said among the rioters were “genuine urban guerillas armed with conventional weapons and hunting weapons”.

Yesterday rampaging youths took to the streets for a second successive night in the suburbs, setting fire to dozens of cars and buildings. At least 77 officers were injured.

The violence was triggered by the deaths of two teenagers when their motorbike crashed into a police car on Sunday in Villiers-le-Bel, a blue-collar town in Paris’ northern suburbs.

Residents claimed that the officers left the crash scene without helping them and unrest began to spread.

Rioting first erupted in Villiers-le-Bel the same night. It grew worse and spread last night to other towns north of Paris.

The use of firearms added a dangerous new dimension. Guns were rarely used in the three weeks of 2005 riots that began in the capital and spread to poor housing estates across the country.

Police are facing “a situation that is far worse than that of 2005,” said Patrice Ribeiro, national secretary of the Synergie officers union.

“Our colleagues will not allow themselves to be fired upon indefinitely without responding,” he warned . “They will be placed in situations which will become untenable.”

President Sarkozy was on a visit to China when the riots began. He appealed from there for calm and called a security meeting with his ministers for tomorrow on his return.

Mr Sarkozy was interior minister, in charge of police, during the riots of 2005, giving him hands-on experience of this type of urban unrest. The violence two years ago also started in the suburbs of northern Paris, when two teenagers were electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police.

Last night youths were seen firing shotguns at police and reporters. A police union official said a round from a hunting rifle pierced the body armour of one officer, who suffered a serious shoulder wound.

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said there were six serious injuries, “people who notably were struck in the face and close to the eyes.”

In Villiers-le-Bel, arsonists set fire to the municipal library and burned books littered its floor. Shops and businesses were also attacked and more than 70 vehicles were torched.