Officials in Paris last night warned that rioters in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel were armed with hunting rifles and air rifles as clashes with police continued to escalate. More than 70 police officers were injured on Monday night, three of them seriously, in clashes with rioters armed with molotov cocktails and firecrackers. One officer was shot in the shoulder with an air rifle."We're dealing with an urban guerrilla tactic, with the use of conventional arms and hunting rifles," said Bruno Beschizza, of the Synergie police union.
One rioter with a shotgun "was firing off two shots, reloading in a stairwell, coming back out - boom, boom - and firing again", Gilles Wiart, deputy head of the SGP-FO police union, told the Associated Press.
Police say the riots are more violent than those of late 2005, which also started in a Paris suburb after the death of two youths, both accidentally electrocuted while fleeing police. "It's different, there's much more violence," said Christophe, a 30-year-old police officer on duty at Villers-le-Bel and during the 2005 riots. "Back then, it was more of a revolt. This time, they're after us and they're armed."
