'riots' - tagged features

In France many say social unrest has been on the cards for some time. Dozens of police officers were injured on Monday and Tuesday during clashes with youths in a northern Paris suburb. The intensity of the violence took everyone by surprise – Molotov cocktails were thrown and even shotguns were fired, putting several policemen in hospital. The catalyst for all of this was the death on Sunday of two teenage boys who were killed when their motorcycle collided with a police car. The violent reaction from sections of the community’s rekindled memories of the nationwide rioting two years ago, when the protest act of choice was car-burning. 

Almost a year after France's suburban riots, police are warning of a new upsurge of violence in the country's poorer districts. Policemen were stoned and beaten by gangs of youths in three separate incidents over the past three weeks. In the latest one, officers were ambushed and had to fire their hand weapons in the air to escape. The growing defiance against law enforcement authorities is a sign that few lessons have been drawn from last year's troubles on both sides, and that little has been done to improve the lives of immigrants in France's derelict and isolated housing estates.