First death reported in French riots

A man beaten up during violence in a riot-hit suburb north of Paris died of his injuries on Monday, making him the first fatality in unrest that began on Oct. 27.

Hospital officials and an Interior Ministry spokesman said Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec had died after being beaten in another riot-hit suburb on Friday.

The newspaper Le Parisien said the victim was 60 and had been in a coma since being attacked by a youth outside his home in the suburb of Stains.

Rioters shot at police and torched 1,400 vehicles in France's poor suburbs as unrest spread and intensified for an 11th night despite a vow by French President Jacques Chirac to defeat it.

Reacting to official suggestions that Islamist militants might be orchestrating some of the protests, one of France's largest Muslim organizations issued a fatwa against the unrest, but violence reached new levels overnight.

In the most serious incident, youths at a housing estate in Grigny, south of Paris, ambushed police with rocks, petrol bombs and firearms. Ten officers were injured, including two seriously hurt by pellets shot into their neck and legs.

"They really shot at officers," said Bernard Franio, head of police for the Essone area south of Paris, after about 200 youths attacked his colleagues in Grigny.

"This is real, serious violence. It's not like the previous nights. I am very concerned because this is mounting."

A policeman at the scene held up a shotgun cartridge for cameras. Rioters fired live rounds at police and fire crews on Wednesday night, but no injuries were reported.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy whose tough line has been widely criticized but apparently endorsed by President Jacques Chirac's demand that order be restored before any measures are taken, visited the injured policemen in hospital.

Prime minister's response

"We cannot accept any 'no-go' areas," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said after Chirac chaired a special domestic security council late on Sunday, promising "a reinforcement of security forces anywhere in the country if it is necessary."

Some 2,300 extra officers have already been drafted in to quell the riots

National Police service chief Michel Gaudin said 1,408 vehicles had been burned and 395 people arrested. The provincial cities of Marseille, Saint-Etienne, Toulouse, Metz and Lille were the worst affected, he told reporters.

Youths torched a bus in Saint-Etienne in central France, injuring the driver and a passenger. In the eastern city of Strasbourg, rioters threw petrol bombs into a primary school.

In Toulouse in the southwest, a blazing car was pushed into a metro entrance. At Lens in the north, a firebomb was thrown at a church. In nearby Lille, about 50 cars were torched and a Belgian television reporter was beaten up as he filmed.

In his first public comments since the unrest began, Chirac on Sunday evening vowed the state was determined "to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear."

But the opposition have attacked his administration's handling of the crisis, which has dented the right's law and order credentials.

"The least we can say is that the government's response has been confused and weak," Jean-Marc Ayrault, Socialist Party leader in the National Assembly, wrote in the daily Le Figaro.

The head of France's employers' group expressed concern about the impact the unrest could have on tourism and investment in France, where sluggish growth is stifling job creation. "France's image has been deeply damaged," Laurence Parisot told Europe 1 radio.

Apparent copycat attacks spread outside France for the first time, with five cars torched outside Brussels' main train station, police in the Belgian capital said.

Source: China Daily