French police in dawn raids on riot suburb

Police raided housing projects today in a Paris suburb in a pre-dawn sweep aimed at finding rioters who led an outburst of violence last year.

More than 1,000 riot police and other officers were mobilised for the raid in Villiers-le-Bel and neighbouring towns as part of the investigation into the November riots.

Violence erupted in the town’s housing projects after two teenage boys were killed in a motorbike crash with a police car.