Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in a suburb of Paris early yesterday, a second night of rioting which was triggered when two teenagers died fleeing police. The two teenagers were killed and a third seriously injured on Thursday night when they were electrocuted in an electricity sub station as they fled from police investigating a break-in, media reported.
Firefighters intervened around 40 times on Friday night in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois where many of the 28,000 residents are immigrants, mainly from Africa, police and fire officers said.
Unidentified youths fired a shot at police but no one was hurt, police said.
A police trade union called for help from the army. "There's a civil war under way in Clichy-Sous-Bois at the moment," a police union official said.