French media also reported attacks on a school and a bus in northern Paris and on vehicles in two poor areas to the west of the capital. Several cars were also reported to gave been set ablaze in Dijon, the first city outside Paris to be hit.
'It escalated on Wednesday evening when police and fire crews were shot at with live ammunition on three occasions.
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Villepin indirectly blamed the riots on gangs he said terrorized residents and sought to keep police out of their neighborhoods.
"I refuse to accept that organized gangs are laying down the law in certain neighborhoods, I refuse to accept that crime networks and drug traffickers profit from this disorder, I refuse to accept that the strong intimidate the weak," he said.
"Law and order will have the last word," he told senators.
Sarkozy seconded him, saying: "There is only one political line, that set by the prime minister."
Sarkozy, accused by opponents of inflaming passions with his outspoken attacks on the "scum" behind the violence, said on Thursday that 143 people had been detained in the past week for rioting.'