UPDATE---
Shots fired as French riots escalate
By Paul Carrel
34 minutes ago
BOBIGNY, France (Reuters) - Rioters shot at police and fire crews in the worst night in a week of violence in poor Paris suburbs, as France's conservative government struggled to respond to the unrest.
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Youths rampaged in nine poor suburbs north and east of Paris, home to North African and black African minorities frustrated at their failure to get jobs or recognition in French society, leaving a trail of destruction behind them.
"It's a dramatic situation. It is very serious and we fear that the events could even get worse tonight," said Francis Masanet, secretary general of the UNSA police trade union.
Prefect Jean-Francois Cordet, the government's top official in the Seine-Saint-Denis region, confirmed rounds had been fired at police and fire crews in three separate incidents.
"Four live bullets were fired. Two shots were fired at La Courneuve against police. One shot was fired at Noisy-le-Sec against fire crews, and one shot was fired against fire crew in Saint-Denis," he told a news conference.
Cordet did not say what sort of weapon had been fired but media said local police recovered shotgun cartridges from the scene at La Courneuve.
No one was reported as hurt in the shootings, which marked an escalation in the level of violence that left 177 charred vehicles and damaged a primary school and shopping center.
Cordet said four police officers and two fire fighters were hurt, including one who was burned on the face by a Molotov cocktail. Twenty-nine people were detained and 23 remained in custody, he added.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin discussed the crisis with elected officials from the riot struck areas, as the government struggled to respond to the violence and the opposition taunted the conservative's much-vaunted crime record.
He will hold a working lunch with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, his potential rival to lead the right in 2007 presidential elections, in a display of unity after government squabbling over how to respond to the violence.
ZERO TOLERANCE
Governments across Europe have been confronted with violence in deprived inner city areas, and the unrest in France comes despite Sarkozy's anti-crime drive led in the wake of President Jacques Chirac re-election in 2002, won on law and order issues.
The week of unrest first broke out in the Clichy-sous-Bois suburb after two teenagers were electrocuted while apparently fleeing police during a local disturbance. The deaths touched off pent up frustrations in the area and quickly spread to other underprivileged dormitory towns that ring the Paris area.
"Because of this, we will not go to school tomorrow. Look at the pollution, we can't even breathe and I'm asthmatic," one resident in the Blanc-Mesnil area told Reuters television after a seventh straight night of unrest in the Paris region.
Sarkozy, whose attacks on the "scum" behind urban violence have prompted the opposition to say he has enflamed passions, visited the operations room in the Bobigny suburb overnight, out of the sight of cameras that usually accompany him everywhere.
The minister, who has vowed "zero tolerance" on rioters, told lawmakers on Wednesday he had dispatched an extra 2,000 police and gendarmes to troubled areas.
"When I hear some people say that the presence of police can be provocative for some people, if the presence of police provokes some people, I know a lot of others who are delighted that the police and the gendarmes are in their area," he said.
A trade union representing policemen described the unrest as a "civil war" and called on Sarkozy to impose a curfew in the affected areas to ensure violence did not spiral out of control.
The day after Chirac called for dialogue and for calmer minds to prevail, Social Cohesion Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said people should not develop a one-sided image of the suburbs.
"One must not think for one second that this is the life of these neighborhoods," Borloo told France 2 television. "They are an integral part of our country. It is in these neighborhoods that most companies are being founded."
(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich and Jon Boyle)
How long can the battle rage before the enemy is publicly named?
Well, I notice Reuters managed to do a whole article without the word Muslim. Awkward and childish sounding, but they pulled it off.
They can't say they weren't warned. The article below is about La Courneuve, and it is from 10/01: