Rioters on early Monday fired shots at police and set hundreds of cars ablaze on an 11th night of violence in France, hours after President Jacques Chirac vowed to arrest and punish those who "sow violence or fear."

Ten policemen were injured, two of them seriously, when a groupof youths fired at police with shotguns in Grigny, south of Paris,police said.

One officer was treated with lead shot wounds to the throat, while another suffered injuries to one leg, said the police.

According to the police, the shots could probably not have beenfatal, but the escalating violence was clearly capable of causing serious injuries.

At least 300 cars had been set ablaze in several towns across the country and 37 people had been arrested during the fresh violence which came just hours after President Jacques Chirac madehis first public address on Sunday since violence started in the poor suburbs on Oct. 27.

"Those who want to sow violence of fear, they will be arrested,judged and punished," Chirac said Sunday after a crisis meeting oftop cabinet ministers.

The absolute priority is "restoring security and public order",the French president added.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who attended the emergency meeting, said more police would be deployed where troubles flared and there would be "a reinforcement of security forces anywhere in the country if it is necessary".

According to the French newspaper Le Journal de Dimanche, Villepin said he was "preparing to announce emergency measures to try to stop the violence".

Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy Sarkozy both canceled their foreign trips this week because of the riots.

The violence was sparked on Oct. 27 after the accidental electrocution of two teenagers in an electrical sub-station when they tried to flee a police identity check in Clichy-sous-bois, northeast Paris suburb.

Since then, rioting has spread to 200 city suburbs and towns, including Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Lille, Rennes, Rouen, Bordeaux and Montpellier, and central Paris, police said.

On Sunday night, youths seized a bus in Saint-Etienne, in southern France, and ordered passengers to get off before they torched the vehicle. The driver and one passenger were hurt.

In eastern Strasbourg, rioters threw Molotov cocktails into a primary school, and in southern Toulouse, a car was pushed towardsthe entrance of a metro tunnel, police said.

On Saturday night some 1,300 vehicles went up in flames across France. And for the first time, more than 30 were destroyed insideParis rather than outlying suburbs.

Helicopters fitted with cameras and searchlights are being usedto pursue youths who started the fires and then race away on scooters, police said.

More than 1000 people have been arrested and over 3,500 vehicles torched so far, according to police. No one has been reported killed till now in the unrest.

Fatwa Against Rioting

The Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF), one of France's largest Islamic groups, issued a fatwa against rioting onSunday after officials suggested Muslim militants could be partly blamed for the violence.

"It is formally forbidden to any Muslim seeking divine grace andsatisfaction to participate in any action that blindly hits private or public property or could constitute an attack on someone's life," said the fatwa.

Many rioters are of North African Arab and black African descent and assumed to be Muslims. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and other officials have hinted Islamist militants may be manipulating angry teenagers to defy the French state.

From an outburst of anger in suburban Paris over housing projects, the violence has fanned out into a nationwide show of fury over high unemployment, poor housing and racial discrimination in the country.

The French president said France would promote "respect for all,justice and equal opportunities."

"But there is a precondition, a priority, I repeat," Chirac said. "That is the restoring of security and public order."

Source: Xinhua