Those "minority" youths are at it again

BBC NEWS | Europe | French leader plans crisis talks

Once again the "minority" youths in France have gone on a rampage of rioting, burning cars and causing mayhem. This time the incident that has sparked the riots was the deaths of two "minority" youths who were illegally riding a motorcycle at top speed. The police involved in the incident have stated that the youths rammed the bike into them, but relatives of the boys are of a different opinion and claim that the boys were left for dead.

Police say the motorcycle was going at top speed and was
not registered for street use, while the two boys - who have been named
only as Moushin, 15, and Larami, 16 - were not wearing helmets and had
been ignoring traffic rules.

Mr Fillon, who visited the scene on Tuesday, called the rioters "criminals" and said nothing could justify the attacks.

"

Those who shoot at policemen, those who beat a police
officer almost to death are criminals and must be treated as such," he
was quoted by AFP news agency as telling parliament.

A library and a nursery school went up in flames in Villiers-le-Bel.

Rioting had spread on Monday from Villiers-le-Bel to other areas in the north Paris suburbs.

Ms Alliot-Marie has said the riots were organised and
criminals were using youngsters to lure away police while they pillaged
shops.

The 2005 unrest, also sparked by the deaths of two
youths, spread from a nearby suburb of Paris to other cities and
continued for three weeks, during which more than 10,000 cars were set
ablaze and 300 buildings firebombed.

Mr Sarkozy was heavily criticised at the time after he
called for crime-ridden neighbourhoods to be "cleaned with a power
hose" and described violent elements as "gangrene" and "rabble".


The BBC's Alasdair Sandford says that although plenty of
money has been poured into areas like Villiers le Bel that seems
irrelevant when tension and resentment between young people and the
police is so strong.

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