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Riot erupts in French city centre
Police on the city's famous Place Bellecour square made two arrests in what state news agency AFP says is the first rioting in a major city centre. Lyon has imposed a curfew for the first time in two weeks of nationwide unrest. Thousands of police are patrolling Paris to enforce a ban on all public meetings likely to provoke rioting. The trouble in Lyon began at about 1700 (1600 GMT) on Place Bellecour where a large number of riot police were on duty as a preventative measure. About 50 youths attacked stalls and damaged vehicles, witnesses were quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. Shoppers hurried away from the area and most shopkeepers closed their doors. Officials in Lyon and 10 other towns to the east of the city earlier announced a curfew to bar unaccompanied minors from the streets over the weekend between 2200 and 0600 local time. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy blamed the Lyon violence on a "demonstration by anarchists" without elaborating. The worst suburban unrest on Friday night was reported in Lyon and the city of Toulouse in the south-west. More than 500 cars were set on fire, two police officers were wounded and 206 people were detained across the country. This was an increase on the previous night, when about 400 vehicles were torched and 168 people were arrested. The Paris ban on meetings, imposed under new emergency measures, started at 0900 GMT on Saturday and will remain in force until Sunday morning. CURFEW LAW * Provides for state of emergency, regional curfews, house searches, house arrest * Public meeting places can be closed down and media, film and theatre showings may be controlled * Breach of curfew could mean two-month jail sentence The ban prohibits "all meetings likely to start or fuel disorder" and comes after police reports of e-mails and text messages calling for "violent acts" in the city on Saturday. Security was tight at the Stade de France stadium, in the riot-hit northern suburbs of Paris, for a football match between France and Germany. Mr Sarkozy has been inspecting police units in the capital, which have been beefed up by at least 2,000 extra officers from outside Paris. The BBC's Nick Thorpe reports from Paris that there has been no sign of trouble in the city. Either the messages were sheer bravado or the publicity given to them by police has scared potential participants away, our correspondent says.
Several hundred people rallied close to police headquarters in central Paris on Saturday to protest against alleged discrimination against youths in the suburbs. "What is happening today in the suburbs is true anger - a 'No' to permanent stigmatisation, to insults and daily acts of discrimination," Mouloud Aounit, secretary general of the Movement of Struggle Against Racism, told the crowd. The country's unrest was triggered by the deaths in the run-down Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois of two youths, who were accidentally electrocuted at an electricity sub-station. Locals said they were fleeing police but the police deny this. Posted by: Ebbolet Floluth8719 2005-11-12 |
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